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"Ahhh, I've never been so happy to smell rotting flesh!" Ivor grinned. They were finally free from the white pumpkin's clutches, after a long night of near death experiences, panic, and many accusations, jesse was relieved to finally be able to see the light of day once more..the smell though..he deffinately didn't miss that.

"Yeah that is..yikes, that is pretty rank." Jesse said as he waved his hand infront of his nose to keep away the pungent odor, face scrunched slightly in disgust. "It feels nice to be able to smell it, to be honest." Said dan with a grin "thanks for keeping us all in one piece jesse, i almost swore some of us were gonna be goners with all those crazy traps back there." Jesse shrugged his shoulders "hey, no problem. Keeping people safe is what i do." The brunette replied.

"Well...everyone but cassie.." said sparklez "really? Didn't she try to, oh i dunno, kill us??" Said torqdawg "he has a point there.." said stampy "..but i don't think she was completely bad, she just seemed a little homesick." Jesse frowned "yeah..i wish i could've reasoned with her, we could've got her home without all the attempted murder."

Lukas nudged the shorter male's arm lightly "hey, you tried your hardest, that's what matters here." The blonde said. Jesse looked up at him and smiled "yeah, you're right. What matters is that we were able to save everyone else." "It's a good thing you came through that portal when you did, otherwise we all would've been goners." Said dan with a small chuckle.

"Speaking of which..i have no idea where to begin with finding our exit portal." Said ivor "well, cassie said it was right under her nose, right?" Said stampy as jesse walked around "that is true.." he mumbled, eyebrows raising as he noticed a golden archway vaguely similar to a skull in the distance. Sparklez walked up beside him "well well well, there it is!" "What a fabulous coincidence!" Grinned ivor.

"So..i guess this is goodbye, huh?" Said stacy. "Yeah, let us know when you stumble into OUR world, ha." Said lukas jokingly "that's real nice of you, but i don't think we can portal HOP, without a portal KEY." Said dan "yeah, that's a real shame.." frowned lizzie, stampy fidgeting with his hands "oh i think stampy's got you covered there." Said jesse, everyone looking at the cat hoodie wearing male in anticipation. Torqdawg raised an eyebrow, arms crossed "well??" He said, growing impatient.

Stampy soon cracked and brought out 'his' flint and steel "ok ok i only meant for it to be a harmless prank! I'm so sorry, so very very sorry!!" He apologized "a prank? a PRANK?? THAT PRANK ALMOST GOT US KILLED YOU LITTLE-" "torqdawg, settle down!" Said sparklez as he adjusted his glasses "I'm sure stampy didn't mean any harm in his little sceme." "Sparklez is right torqdawg. I mean c'mon, it's stampy! You know he would never try to hurt anyone!" Said stacy. Torqdawg merely huffed and went off to the side in response.

"And so, the drama continues..fascinating..." ivor whispered to jesse "hey, whoever keeps it, just be careful with it ok?" The brunette said to the bickering crew of unfamiliar celebrities "yes, the ability to jump between worlds is not something to take lightly." Ivor agreed. Dan yawned "After all this craziness? I think i'll be done chasing flints and steels and portals, anyways.." the cyan haired man rested his arms behind his head "weeelllllll I'm not great at goodbyes, soooooo I'm just gonna start walking home, thanks for everything." Said stacy as she began to walk backwards "yeah, thanks jesse!" Waves lizzie "thank you for everything!" Grinned sparklez "hmph, what they said.." grumbled torqdawg "byyyyeeee!!!!!" And with that, the other group made their leave for home.

"What a strange, strange group of individuals." Ivor shook his head with a soft chuckle, suprised they were able to keep the whole group alive. Their group began to make their way towards the distant portal, a question coming to the alchemist's mind "cassie whatshername was talking about being trapped here..from another world...what if she was one of the old builders??" Petra raised an eyebrow "portal keys, other worlds...it all adds up, i guess." She shrugged in response "i know! Odviously, we have no way in proving it, but it's certainly interesting to think about.." ivor replied with a skip in his step "i just can't believe that we met someone who MIGHT be an old builder, and they ended up being a pumpkin wearing axe weilding cerial killer! Typical.." petra shook her head in mild disappointment as they finally reached the portal.

Ivor looked up at the structure "well here we are, care to do the honors, jesse?" He said to the brunette. Jesse nodded and took out his flint and steel, kneeling down to the bottom of the frame. He brought the two pieces of dimply glowing material down to the ground and struck them together, creating a spark that set the grass alight with vibrant blue flames...but the portal didn't activate, quickly leaving jesse's group confused "huh, that's weird.." jesse said, looking down at the flint and steel.

His head perked up at the sound of a meow. He and the others stared up at the top of the portal, a familiar feline sitting up top "winslow??" Jesse said in confusion "hm, that's odd, i thought--" ivor was about to say until the ground became unstable, the four of them plummeting into a hole in the ground in a flurry of screams, winslow jumping in after them.

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"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!"

screams echoed down a dark tunnel as jesse and co. Plumetted from above, making a rough collision with the ground.

"ARGH!" Ivor groaned, holding his head "..is everyone alright-??" He asked as he staggered to his feet.

Petra stood up "yeah..but it's too dark to see a thing!" She said, looking around to no avail.

"Hey, does the ground feel...squishy, to any of you guys?" Asked jesse "j..jesse..." lukas wheezed from beneath the brunette as the lights clicked on, causing the stocky hero to jump up with an embarassed yelp, lukas's face lightly tinted with red as he too rose to his feet.

They had landed on one of several dirt bridges within a roughly cylindrical room. The bottom half of the cylinder was covered in obsidian, while the upper half was covered in sand.

"Well that's..ominous...." lukas said, a small shiver running up his shoulders "do you hear that..?" Said ivor, more lights clicking on to reveal a pit full of silverfish-esque creatures with purple skin and enderman-like particles "endermites!!"

"And there it is, jesse! You're trapped! Stuck!" Said cassie from an oak wood boardwalk up above with a cackle "just like i have been in this ROTTEN WORLD."

Jesse looked up at her in shock "wh- CASSIE?? BUT WE SAW YOU DIE!!"

Cassie looked down at jesse "oh what, did you think i WASN'T SMART ENOUGH to fake my own death??" She snapped, clearly holding back years of pent up rage and frustration "now, i dunno how much time you've spent with endermites, but the poor things are eternally hungry, so cough up the flint and steel like a good boy, and i'll let you go. Don't, and you'll figure out how sharp their teeth are!!!"

Jesse patted his hands across his body, skin paling with dread "uhh..guys? I think i dropped the flint and steel on the way down, i can't find it..!!" He whispered to the others.

"Tick tock tick tock, jesse~!! What's it gonna be? The flint and steel, or your LIVES??" Cassie said as she paced back and forth "my patience is wearing thin..just give it to me, and i'll let you go free!"

"I don't trust her.." whispered ivor "just think of it this way jesse; just because i hate this place doesn't mean it's so bad." Said cassie as she tapped her foot impatiently "hey, can't we come up with some kind of deal? Like..why don't we share?" Asked jesse.

Cassie's eye twitched "share? SHARE?? OH WHAT, DO YOU WANNA HAPPILY GO INTO THE PORTAL HOLDING HANDS, JUST SO YOU CAN STAB ME IN THE BACK LATER??" She skipped around mockingly with a frustrated sigh "nope, this is taking too long, i'll just fish it out of your inventory once the endermites are done picking your bones clean." She grinned, pulling out a carved out white pumpkin and putting it over her head "IT'LL BE THE BEST FISHING TRIP EVER!!" she cackled "WINSLOW, MY PET. ACTIVATE THE TRAP!!" She ordered her feline friend, winslow paying no attention and merely continued to groom his fur.

Cassie sighed "IF YOU WANT SOMETHING DONE RIGHT, YOU HAFTA..." She muttered, flicking the lever herself, the bridge jesse's group was standing on starting to split apart and contract. Jesse rushed for an iron door on his side of the bridge, tugging at the handles with all his might, but the door didn't budge in the slightest "grr, stupid iron doors!!"

"Without a button or lever, we'll never get these open!!" Said ivor. Jesse looked up and around, eyes landing on the lever cassie used to activate the bridge "hold on, guys! I'll get up to the control panel!!" He readied an ender pearl and threw it after lining up his swing, teleporting and immediately clinging to the edge of the wooden platform, stomach churning with nausea "ughh, that will never not be..disorienting..." jesse hoisted himself up onto the ledge, rushing over to the lever, clicking it back into position.

"UHH, THE BRIDGE JUST STARTED GOING FASTER!!" said lukas from below. Jesse looked at the lever, Astonished "she- booby-trapped her booby-traps?? That's so..paranoid!!" He shook his head, picking up the lever which thankfully disarmed the mechanism.

"WHAT, YOU THOUGHT YOU COULD DO IT, JUST LIKE THAT??" The white pumpkin descended from above, axe raised high "TRYING TO GET 'LEVERAGE'??" She swung her axe down, jesse blocking the blade with his sword "GIVE ME THAT KEY, JESSE!!" Cassie rose demanded, swinging her blade again, jesse leaning back to narrowly avoid the attack, taking the chance to get in an attack of his own, knocking cassie off the ledge, only for her to teleport away with an ender pearl.

With the time he had just earned, jesse rushed to check on his friends, feeling immediate dread when he couldn't see them "oh no..GUYS??" He called "jesse, down here!!" Petra said in a hushed voice. Jesse looked at her and the others with relief "thank goodness that you're all ok.." "yeah, barely...did you find a lever?" Asked petra "right here!" Jesse showed them the lever "pass it down, quick!" Lukas said, jesse doing just that, dropping the lever into petra's hands "got it!"

"Ok, you guys get out of here, i'll find the flint and steel!" Jesse said, watching as the others left through the now open iron door, only to once again come face to face with the white pumpkin.

"YOU'RE NOT A FAST LEARNER, ARE YOU?" Cassie cocked an eyebrow "nope!" Jesse replied, a little too proud of himself for that fact "AAARG!" cassie rushed the brunette, jesse jumping to the side and onto another platform, cassie teleporting to one on the opposite side.

"I'M GROWING TIRED OF THESE GAMES, JESSE!!" Cassie narrowed her eyes. Jesse could sense that his chances were wearing thin. He looked around for something that could help, eyes landing on the flint and steel...and he knew that cassie could see it too.

"THE KEY! YOU DIDN'T HAVE IT EITHER?? WELL, NO MATTER..IT'S MINE NOW!!" Cassie pulled out an ender pearl "NOT ON MY WATCH!" said jesse as he brought out an ender pearl of his own, only to mess up the throw as cassie teleported over to him and punched him in the side, getting teleported to an outcropping on the wall, cassie making a run for the flint and steel.

Jesse readied another ender pearl and threw it, pulling his fist back, punching cassie in the back of her head and pinning her down to the floor "GRR, NO! YOU CAN'T DO THIS! I'VE WAITED TOO LONG!!" Cassie growled as she wriggled in jesse's iron grasp "It's mine..cassie! I won't let you have it!!" Jesse retorted, keeping a tight grip on her arms. They both stopped at the sound of a soft trill, winslow sitting near the flint and steel, pupils dialating as he focused in on it, starting to swat at it with his paws.

"NO! NO NO, WINSLOW! DON'T DO THAT!!" Cassie begged, winslow only kicking the flint and steel closer to the edge "NO, NO! BAD KITTY! STOP IT!! WINSLOW! GOOD BOY, SWEET KITTY! BRING THAT TO MASTER! PLEASE BRING IT TO MASTER!!"

"Heeere kitty kitty, heeere kitty kitty!!" Jesse called to the calico. Winslow looked at the two of them, its head tilted for a moment, until it pushed the flint and steel off the ledge "NO-!!"

Jesse got off of cassie, heart pounding as the flint and steel fell down and onto a lower bridge. He looked to cassie as she readied an ender pearl, quickly tackling her to stop it, only for cassie to chuckle as she teleported away, getting a hold of the flint and steel "AHHH..THERE YOU ARE! AFTER ALL THIS TIME, I'M FREE!!" She cheered "WINSLOW? WHERE ARE YOU, WE HAVE TO GO." Her cat hopped down to accompany its owner "WHAT HAVE I TOLD YOU ABOUT WANDERING OFF??" cassie mumbled.

Jesse landed down on the bridge of sand behind cassie, sword held tightly in hand "i think you should give that back, cassie!!" "NO, I'M AFRAID NOT.." cassie pulled a lever, jesse making a mad dash for the platform as the bridge of sand he was on suddenly started to crumble beneath his feet, barely managing to grab onto the edge of it, hoisting himself up.

Cassie sighed "I'LL GIVE YOU ONE THING..YOU ARE INCREDIBLY TENACIOUS!!" Jesse rushed at her, only to be knocked back by a pillar of cobalt blue fire, thankfully, the worst damage it did was lightly singeing some of his hair. Cassie chuckled, lighting the ground infront of jesse alight "THAT'S NETHERRACK, JESSE. IT BURNS FOREVER!!" "WELL WINSLOW, THAT'S THE LAST OF THE OBSTACLES, WE'RE FINALLY GOING HOME." She flicked a lever, opening a hidden door and revealing that the real portal was under the mansion the entire time.

'This isn't good..' jesse thought, looking up to see petra and lukas hiding above the door. He could tell they had a plan, and he was all in.

"HEY, CASSIE! CATS SUCK!!" Jesse said to the white pumpkin, which immediately ticked her off "WHAT DID YOU SAY??" She snapped "YOU HEARD ME! CATS SUCK, PIGS ARE WAY COOLER!" Jesse replied with a cocky grin. Cassie groaned "i don't know what game you're playing, but I'm sick of it-" with cassie distracted, petra was able to jump down from above and slash the white pumpkin mask with her sword. Lukas dumped his bucket of water onto the netherrack to douse the flames, ivor barking a laugh as he caught the flint and steel unintentionally, i may add "--ha! Yes! I did it!!"

Cassie growled "YOU'RE ALL DYING NOW!!" "uhh, no thank you!!" Ivor tossed the flint and steel to jesse, jesse biding his time until cassie got close enough before striking the ground with it, sending her flying upwards with a pillar of flame.

Cassie coughed and wheezed from the smoke filling her now burning mask. She ripped it off and tossed it down to the endermite pit, she was stuck on a small platform..trapped, again.

"W-well, jesse..i bet you're reeeaaaalllll proud of yourself...look at me! Stuck again! Out of ender pearls!!" She crossed her arms "and that's where she wanted US to end up!" Said ivor "trapped...in my OWN trap...talk about bad karma..tch..." cassie mumbled.

Jesse furrowed his eyebrows "I'm really sorry it had to be this way, cassie! I wish things could've gone differently!" He said to her "yeah, me too..." cassie's pointed ears tipped down slightly as she looked down, head perking up when jesse and the others started to leave "w-wait! I don't want to be alone...can you atleast give me my cat..? My dear sweet winslow..? He's my best- my only friend...please..." cassie pleaded, tears streaking her cheeks.

Jesse looked over at the calico and sighed "heeere kitty, here you pain-in-the-butt kitty!!" He scooped up winslow into his arms and tossed him down to cassie, who held the feline in her loving embrace as she curled into a ball on the ground, mumbling softly.

As jesse turned to leave, he couldn't help but feel extremely sorry for cassie rose, all she wanted was to go home...he couldn't leave her here. He checked his inventory for any building materials he may have, he had some wood and cobblestone from when he first got to this realm...but something told him that it wouldn't be enough.

Lukas turned to the brunette, an eyebrow twitching in confusion "hey, jesse? You coming?" He asked. Jesse looked at lukas "do you guys have any extra building materials "uhh...kinda, yeah. Why?" Lukas asked. Jesse held his breath for a short moment.

"We're gonna get cassie out of here."

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"We're getting cassie out of here."

The group of adventurers merely stared at their brown haired leader, and jesse could see several mixed reactions coming from them, a combination of shock, confusion, and even a tiny hint of anger, mainly from petra and ivor. Especially petra.

"Jesse are you crazy? Are you completely forgetting about the fact that she tried to kill us??" Said petra. Lukas gritted his teeth "..I'm gonna have to agree with petra on this one, jesse. This is too dangerous." Said the blonde.

"Guys i completely agree that it might be risky, but we can't just leave her here. All she wanted was to go home." Jesse replied "tch, yeah, with the flint and steel she fished out from one of OUR inventories!" Ivor retorted, arms crossed. Jesse sighed "just..give her a second chance, alright? I'm sure she'll make up for her actions at some point on our way back, but you gotta give it time."

The other three just stared, eventually caving in and agreeing to the plan "ugh, fiiine...here's some cobblestone i still had on hand.." petra groaned, handing jesse a couple blocks of cobblestone "i have some dirt you can use." Said ivor "i have sand, though, that probaply won't help at all.." lukas chuckled lightly.

Jesse grinned, collecting the blocks from his friends "thanks guys, and thanks for atleast trying to help, lukas." He looked at the blonde a bit longer than he intended to, before quickly swirving around and going to the edge of the platform, peering down at cassie as she still remained curled up in a ball.

He inhaled and exhaled, and started placing blocks. Carefully bridging his way down to the red-head, petra and lukas watching him like phantoms, weapons at the ready in case cassie were to lash out.

After a couple of moments, jesse made contact with cassie's platform. Slowly, he stepped off of his bridge and went towards her, freezing when cassie twitched her head to meet his gaze "what the hell do you want from me now..you got your stupid flint and steel back!" She snapped at him. Jesse took a small step back out of suprise from the sudden hostility, yet remained sturdy, he wasn't gonna let cassie push him away.

"I came to get you out of here." Jesse replied. Cassie looked at him with confusion in her teary eyes "wh- wha-" "you don't deserve to perish like this, cassie. All you wanted to do was get out of this realm, and i can understand that. If you come with us, we can get you home." Cassie sniffled "h-how do i know this isn't a trick??" She asked him. Jesse shook his head "no tricks up my sleeves, I'm just trying to help." He replied, stretching out a hand "you in?"

Cassie looked up at jesse from where she sat. She was still confused, how could he want to help her after she almost killed him and a bunch of other people? It was strange, and something cassie was unfamiliar to. Though..she was almost tempted to take his offer, having previously wished that their conflict could've ended differently. She looked at winslow, the calico curled up in her arms and purring softly. He deserved better. They both deserved better.

She looked back to jesse and stood up, taking his hand as she mustered a faint smirk "..alright, I'm in." She replied, jesse smiling and walking cassie up his makeshift staircase. Cassie's shoulders tensed as she saw petra holding the handle of her sword, lukas having an arrow ready in his bow "easy guys, she isn't gonna do anything." Jesse said to them, the two looking at jesse, then cassie, then at eachother before nodding and putting away their weapons, following behind their leader to the portal.

"About time..!" Muttered ivor as he straigtened himself from leaning on the portal frame, back making several loud crackling pops that made petra shudder, gross.

"Let's get back on the road." Jesse said as he pulled out the flint and steel "wait..how do we know that this isn't another fake portal for another one of cassie's tricks??" Asked lukas. Cassie looked at him "i may have been paranoid, but I'm not THAT paranoid." She replied.

Jesse looked at the two..lukas did have a point. He may have helped cassie out, but that didn't mean he trusted her fully. Breath hitching in his throat, he approached the portal and quickly struck it with the flint and steel, eyes squeezed shut, waiting to be dropped into a pit or have lava dumped on him or some other terrible fate.

But instead, there was the relieving sound of the portal activating, and jesse sighed with relief. Petra smirked "hey, last one back to the hallway is a rotten spawn egg!" She dashed and jumped in "wh- hey! No fair!!" Lukas whined, going in after her.

"After you cassie." Jesse gestured to the portal, cassie smiling at him "thanks jesse..for putting your trust in me." "Well, i don't trust you completely, i still have my suspicions, but I'm certain that'll change with time." The brunette replied as cassie jumped into the portal, going in after her, ivor being the last to follow.

"..ADVENTURE!"

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As cassie set foot out of the portal, she could feel her head spin. She had completely forgotten how disorienting walking through those portals was due to being imprisoned in that stupid realm for so long with no way out...curse the other old builders.

Lukas brought out his journal and marked down cassie's portal, quickly tucking it back into his jacket pocket so he could follow behind everyone else, their hunt for the portal home resuming yet again.

Cassie followed behind them, arms resting behind her head "so, what other worlds have you lot been to before coming to mine?" She asked. Silence.

"Er..well..we haven't been to that many quite yet," replied Lukas "the only reason we came here was purely on accident. An old friend of mine took the flint and steel after Jesse found it and escaped to some kind of floating city, then we found the portal and ended up here." He explained, cassie giving a tiny nod "I've documented a couple of worlds in my journal- OW!" he winced at an elbow to the ribs from petra "the heck did you do that for??"

Petra crossed her arms, looking at her brother, cuz they are siblings here fite me "cassie may not be trying to kill us anymore, but that doesn't mean she can be trusted with any important information." She replied "but i-" "orange hair is kinda right, y'know." Cassie interrupted "you're right to still be on edge, who knows when I might lash out and chop your block off?" She smirked, pulling out an axe, though it was evident she was merely toying with the two.

From the front, Jesse could hear the conversation and sighed, rubbing his temples, wishing his teammates could just trust cassie already.

"Alright. To get everyone to quiet down, how about we head into this portal?" He suggested, gesturing to a portal made of...lapis..? He guessed it was lapis, anyways. Everyone gathered around said portal, Lukas already sketching it down in his book, getting a bit distracted as everyone had already jumped in.

"Hey, blondie," cassie nudged the slightly taller individual "hm?" Lukas hummed, unaware "all your buddies left already." She replied. Lukas jolted his head up "oh, crap!" He fidgeted with his quill, tucking it into his book before shoving it into his pocket and jumping in, cassie gently placing down a still sleeping Winslow near the frame so she could follow in after them.

On the other side, Jesse and co. Had wound up on one of several small islands in the middle of a vast ocean "..huh...looks..kinda familiar...?" Jesse said as he took in his surroundings "uh, yeah, minus the fact that the moon is red." Said ivor, pointing to the sky.

"Red moon visible during the day...yeah, this isn't our world, at all." Petra shook her head with a sigh "let's just get to work digging up that portal..." "or, maybe we could dive for it. We are surrounded by water, it seems more likely that it'd be underwater." Said ivor "and how'd you think we'd combat drowning, grumpypants?" Petra said with a faint teasing tone, a question ivor did not have an answer for.

"Well, we could use these." Suggested cassie, showing a chest full of glass diving helmets. Everyone surrounded the chest. Petra cocked an eyebrow "..where did you find these?" She asked the redhead "Jesse saw something poking out of the sand while you and gramps over there were squabbling and decided to dig it up, it ended up being a chest full of diving equipment." Cassie replied with her explanation "wh- gramps??" Said ivor, offended.

"Guys!! That's enough," Jesse barked, grabbing one of the helmets and turning it in his hands "let's get to work already, that portal isn't gonna find itself."

Everyone nodded and grabbed a helmet each, putting it on and jumping into the sea. When Jesse went to dive in though, he saw cassie just standing there, looking almost...afraid "hey, cassie..you ok?" "Wh- who, me? Yeah, I'm fine! Just uhh...got some sand in my glasses, is all!" She giggled nervously, rushing into the water, Jesse going in after her.

The water was relatively warm, which was a good sign. Jesse's team swam for what felt like hours, entranced by the bizarre range of flora and fauna this world had to offer, from small blue fish with beaks and large yellow eyes, to whale-sized behemoths carrying entire reefs on their backs. Thankfully, these guys were peaceful.

They kept going until their arms and legs got sore, taking a break on another island. The smaller fish were edible and packed full of nutrients, which helped them regain their energy quite quickly.

They all sat around a cobalt blue fire, laughing at jokes and snarky remarks as they cooked their catch over the open flame. Jesse swallowed a mouthful and turned his head to look around, noticing that cassie was a little ways away from them, eating all on her own.

"I'm gonna see what's up with cassie." He said to the others, their chatter quieting down "y'know, we could just feed her to one of those sharky-looking things and get out of here." Said ivor, everyone immediately glaring at him. He looked back in confusion "..what??"

Jesse shook his head "no, we are not leaving her to be trapped in another realm after getting her out of the first one. I know it's hard to trust her right now, but you need to at least get along a little bit, just until we get home." He said to the raven-haired man. Ivor huffed "hrmph, fine.." he rolled his eyes slightly, Jesse standing up and going over to cassie to speak with her.

Cassie could hear Jesse's footsteps "I heard what the old man said. And frankly, I think you should've gone with his idea." She said to him as he sat down nearby "no way, I am not leaving you to become fish bait." He replied "trying to kill yourself isn't gonna make anything better, but making up for your past actions will. It may take a lot of work, but it'll all be worth it in the end."

"..Heh, well. I wasn't wrong about you being tenacious," she said, receiving a chuckle "..and.. I guess you're right," she pulled her knees close to her chest with one arm, leaving the other free so she could trace circles in the sand with her finger "..I'm not exactly used to this kind of generosity, only one other person was ever this kind towards me..."

Jesse furrowed his eyebrows "cassie, I am so sorry to hear that..." he said to her. Cassie shrugged "eh, it's fine, I guess. Got used to it after a while..." Jesse scratched the back of his neck "..by the way, why did you seem so hesitant to get into the water earlier?" He asked, "I'm..not exactly the biggest fan of water, or oceans, for that matter." Cassie replied, "that's the curse of having thalassophobia." She sighed.

"Well, at least you aren't in this alone, right?" Jesse smiled, and cassie grinned at him "..yeah, I guess so," she fidgeted slightly "I hope Winslow is gonna be ok.."

"That dumb little cat is surprisingly resilient, he'll be ok." Jesse reassured, "hey, Winslow is NOT dumb!" Cassie retorted, bunching jesse on the shoulder, the brunette laughed "hey, I was just kidding!!"

Once the...sun? Moon? Ah, whatever, the big round glowy thing in the sky rose the next morning, it was back to swimming for the portal back to the hallway. The group of adventurers swam through many locales; peaceful shallows, swaying kelp forests, grassy plateaus...until they reached a point where the sea floor dropped significantly, large pillars of black rock jutting up from the sand "freaky..." Jesse muttered, diving downwards. They searched around the spikey stone structures for any sign of a portal.

"Nothing over here..!" Said petra to the east "I haven't found anything yet, either!" Said ivor to the west "keep looking! It's gotta be somewhere around here!" Jesse replied as he swam through an archway.

Cassie was assisting in the search, freezing when she heard something in the distance..a faint roar, maybe? "Er..guys? Did anybody else hear that??" She turned to the others, but they were all still occupied with searching. Cassie gulped nervously as she went back to looking, this time staying a bit closer to everyone else.

Lukas let out a defeated sigh "it's not anywhere around here, Jesse. Maybe it's back in the shallows?" He suggested, "yeah, maybe we'll go back and check there..c'mon guys!" He gestured for everyone to follow, though stopped when he saw cassie just floating still "hey..cassie? You coming?" He called to her, swimming over when she didn't move. She was staring off into the distance, eyes wide and skin pale with dread.

Jesse looked in the direction she was looking, narrowing his eyes to try and focus on whatever she saw. Off in the distance, was a long, serpentine shadow, a rumbling roar escaped from the organism, and as soon as they heard it, the creature immediately began to head in their direction. Jesse's eyes widened in alarm "everyone, move move move!!" Panic ran through the whole group as the creature got closer.

The creature could now be seen much more clearly. Its skin was a pale white with red accents and fins running down its back, its face had a maw of several sharp teeth and two mandibles on either side, as well as four pitch-black eyes, a large rhino-like horn in the middle of its head. The creature roared again, cassie immediately beginning to hyperventilate.

Jesse swirled around to see cassie petrified on the spot "cassie!!" He swam to her as fast as he could, pulling out his sword to block the creature's gnashing jaws, grunting with strain as it pushed against the blade with immense force "cassie! Go! Now!!" He told the redhead. Cassie shook out of her frightened state and started swimming for her life as Jesse fought the creature, swinging his enchanted blade at one of its mandibles, the creature roaring in pain, causing Jesse to cover his ears from how loud it was.

The others turned around to see Jesse stunned by the creature's roar "Jesse needs our help!!" Said Lukas, everyone disregarding the danger the creature posed to save their leader.

Petra yelled and plunged her blade into the creature's shoulderblade, causing it to thrash about, getting it away from Jesse, Lukas taking him away to recover "you ok??" He asked the brunette. Jesse sighed ".. yeah, maybe just a little bit deaf." He smirked.

"I COULD USE SOME HELP OVER HERE!!!" petra called "don't worry petra, I've got you!!" Said Lukas, stringing an arrow into his bow and firing...only for the arrow to immediately sink. The other four immediately facepalmed their helmets. Lukas grinned sheepishly "... probably should've known that arrows weren't gonna work-" "YA THINK???" Said Cassie, Lukas switching to his iron sword to help his sister, stabbing the creature in the side.

Amidst the chaos, ivor had found the portal poking out of the sand below "Jesse! Over here!!" He lead Jesse and cassie to the portal, the three of them quickly digging it up while Petra and Lukas fought the hostile alien lifeform "light it light it light it!!!" Cassie panicked "will the flint and steel even work underwater??" Said ivor "only one way to find out!" Jesse replied, striking the portal with his flint and steel, the portal bursting to life with a vibrant blue hue "..how-"

Ivor was halted mid-sentence by a quickly approaching roar "EVERYONE MOVE!!!" it was petra and Lukas, the two of them steering the creature towards the portal at full speed. Everyone Yelled in terror and immediately went inside, the creature slamming into the frame with immense force.

Jesse burst from the portal and slid across the floor of the hallway, soon followed by cassie, Lukas and petra. The brunette took off his helmet and shook out his hair, bursting into laughter from the adrenaline rush "whoo! You guys were amazing back there!!" He turned to the siblings, Lukas's cheeks and ears becoming tinted with a faint red from the praise "taking care of that loudmouth was a cakewalk." Petra smiled, perching her sword up on her shoulder.

"Winslow!!" Cassie said with outstretched arms, Winslow running and jumping into her embrace. The redhead laughed joyfully as she hugged her beloved cat, the feline purring loudly as he licked and nuzzled her face "I'm surprised you slept through all of that, you adorably lazy feline!"

The other three smiled fondly at cassie's joy at being reunited with her cat "..hold on a minute, has anyone seen ivor?" Asked petra, a rumbling roar shaking the hallway, the force of the roar causing a jet of water to rocket out from the portal they had just gone through, ivor riding it into yet another lapis portal.

Petra groaned "ugh, not again!!" She rushed after him "welp, let's go!" Said Jesse "you guys go on ahead, I'm gonna stay here for a bit!" Cassie said, Jesse, nodding in response, jumping into yet another portal.

And once they got back, Lukas immediately wrote down the water world as 'KILLER FISH WORLD. NOTE TO SELF; NEVER LEAVE THE SHALLOWS. EVER.' followed by a drawing of the four-eyed creature that had attacked them, the rest of the pages soon to be filled with even crazier dimensions.

Chapter Text

"Ugh, Not again!!" Petra groaned, her and the others rushing after ivor when he got blasted into another portal, kickstarting a montage of all of them jumping into portal after portal after portal, world to world to world, and cassie merely sat there to watch the chaos unfold.

It was insane how many different dimensions there were, and lukas was starting to think that he might need a second book to document them all.

They flew from a portal made of netherrack covered in smoke and sparks of flame. Ivor coughed a plume of smog "...w-what was that now..portal number 15??" He said, having lost track of how many worlds they had gone into.

"Actually, it was number 39." Cassie corrected, having memorized the amount of portals they had gone into "39 PORTALS IN AND WE'RE NO WHERE NEAR HOME, UUUGGGHHHH!!!!!!" petra groaned in frustration, throwing her sword at the dirt frame of another portal, narrowly missing the top of jesse's head.

"..aaand i'll mark that one down as 'fire world'..." lukas finished quietly, adding another portal to his journal "ohh wow, how creative..." petra rolled her eyes, voice heavy with sarcasm.

"Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bedrock this morning.." cassie mumbled, suddenly starting to sniff the air "..hey is something burning?" They all turned to the source of the crackling flame...which was lukas. His ass was on fire, and jesse had to put it out-

And cassie had this smirk on her face which meant that oh yeah, she deffinately knew.

Jesse looked at petra, wondering what had gotten her all grouchy and snappy "what's up with you?" He asked. Petra looked at him "what's up with me? what's UP?? I'm TIRED of all this USELESS PORTAL HOPPING trying to find our way HOME!!" She replied "'what's on the other side of that portal? A lake of fire and netherrack? Awsome! Let's go there!'" She said in a mocking voice, which frankly hurt jesse a little bit.

"Huh, that doesn't sound like the petra i know. She LOVES fighting against impossible odds.." jesse crossed his arms. Petra rolled her eyes "when i have to, sure. But i don't want to fight just for the sake of fighting!!" She snapped back.

"Hey, blondie, your ass is on fire again!" Said cassie, still keeping her distance from the tired frustrated group. Lukas yelped and was quick to put it out "hey, i have a name, y'know!!" He said to cassie rose, who merely smirked "i know, i just choose not to use it." She replied teasingly, lukas rolling his eyes in response.

"See..ughh, this is what I'm talking about! We're stuck in a rut- we go through a portal, avoid dying long enough to get back to the STUPID hallway--" "wash, rinse, repeat... yes, it would be nice if whoever made these left some sort of signs. Guidposts." Said ivor.

"Tried asking one of the other old builders to do that, he deemed it an 'unnecessary waste of materials', or whatever." Said cassie with a huff as she approached, winslow walking down by her feet "but, maybe if you payed attention to the frames..." "cassie might be onto something," said lukas, looking around "all of the frames are different, signifying the kind of world they are. This one is a fire world with all the netherrack, and the one with the skull is cassie's realm, there's a system."

Petra grumbled and turned around, walking in the opposite direction of the group "these 'other old builders' should've listened to you, cassie, because we're pretty much as good as stuck here without any kind of help." She said, stopping near a portal made of redstone "believe me, I'd help you guys if i could, but a lot of details are a bit fuzzy." Cassie replied, petra groaning with a roll of her eyes "..look, how about we just try this one," she tapped the redstone frame "redstone, means smart people. Smart people, means a possible way out. It's gotta be better than 'fire world', at LEAST."

"Aaand how do you know redstone means smart people, hm?" Cassie raised an eyebrow "for all we know, it could actually be an electrical plain ravaged by red lightning bolts or something."

"I'm..gonna have to agree with cassie on this one, petra." Said jesse as he scratched the back of his head. Petra narrowed her eyes "of course you agree with her, you agree with EVERYONE ELSE'S POINTS BUT MINE." She crossed her arms "hey, petra, jesse didn't mean it like that. He's just worried that cassie might be right and wants to keep us out of danger." Said lukas "are you all COMPLETELY FORGETTING that she tried to KILL US??" Petra countered, Cassie backing up at the mention of that.

"OF COURSE NOT! But we need to get past that now, we're all in this together!!" Jesse replied, stamping one foot infront of himself "SHE CAN GO IT ALONE FOR ALL I CARE!!" Petra snapped "woah.." lukas said under his breath, that being a pretty low blow "yeah, woah..." muttered ivor.

Jesse looked over at cassie to see her sitting on the floor, petting her cat. He could see sadness and regret in her eyes "hey, take that back. Cassie really needs us, there's no way she'd survive on her own without any way of guidance." Jesse said sternly "EVERYBODY, CHILL!!!" Said lukas, breaking up the fight, petra and jesse pausing to look at him.

"Tempers are running kinda hot-- maybe we should just all say we're sorry. And petra, apologize to cassie while you're at it, too." The blonde said. Petra let out a sigh "..maybe you're right, lukas.." she looked at jesse "sorry for being so snappy and rude, I'm just...tired of all this portal hopping.." she shuffled her feet "hey, it's alright petra, i can understand that things are getting repetitive..though, i think it's cassie you should apologize to the most." Jesse replied, gesturing to the ruby-haired girl.

Petra looked at her, face scrunched with hesitation. She still didn't quite trust the white pumpkin..though, jesse was kinda right. Cassie would be completely vulnerable out on her own without her usual tricks. She huffed and went to cassie "hey cassie, listen, i..." she scratched the back of her neck "..i never meant all of that..the stress is just really getting to me..and it's not exactly easy for me to let go of what you tried to do.."

Cassie listened to petra's words but didn't turn to look at her, scratching winslow behind their ear, receiving a soft purr from the feline "..I'm not gonna completely accept your apology, but at least you put in effort to make it some-what genuine," she stood up, turning to the portal, winslow perched up on her shoulders "let's just go there already..and hope that my 'red lightning world' idea isn't true."

And with that, they all walked in.

..aand of course, their landing wasn't exactly the most comfortable one...

They all collided with the dry, cracked ground of what seemed to be a mesa biome, cassie somehow landing on her feet effortlessly..talk about being a cat lady.

Jesse looked around, seeing nothing but clay, sand, and cacti "..well, so much for that redstone hunch." He said "well, it's better than my idea." Said cassie, jesse slightly shrugging in agreement.

"Well there's gotta be some, SOMEWHERE." Said ivor as he started to walk around. Lukas nodded "yeah, every world's gotta have redstone, lemme see here.." the tall blonde pulled out his journal and started looking through the pages "hey lukas. I've been meaning to ask you..what's that?" Asked jesse, pointing at the journal.

Lukas quirked his eyes up to look at jesse "oh! Uh...it's just a book i picked up back at cassie's mansion, it's all about different biomes 'nd stuff." He replied "eh, most of it is speculation. I've been cooped up in that stupid dark oak forest for so long, i forgot how..barren mesa biomes really are, thought there'd be a few streams or mobs going around.." cassie said, kicking a pebble. Jesse smirked "hey, great idea lukas." He said to the taller male, recieving a small grin from him.

Lukas looked at petra, noticing disappointment crossing her face "hey, petra, you alright?" He asked "so much for redstone and that 'advanced civilization'.." she did air quotes around the advanced civilization bit "i just really thought that redstone meant something.." "hey, petra, don't be hard on yourself. We've only just gotten here, there's gotta be some redstone around nearby." Jesse said to the orange haired warrior.

"Hm, would you look at that..sand," observed ivor, looking down at a trail of hot, course sand that seemed to be some kind of trail "it..looks like a road, of some kind..?" Said lukas, confused as to how there's a road "well, a road means civilization. So what are we waiting for?" Said cassie, following the road while walking backwards, the others turning to eachother and nodding in agreement.

They walked for what seemed like hours, even though it had just been a couple of minutes, probaply because of the heat "sand, clay, more sand..." jesse mumbled. They all paused at the sound of something scrambling across the rock "..what was that..??" Petra laughed "HA! There ARE people here!!" She rushed forwards to find the source of the noise "petra, wait!!" Jesse ran after her, finding her crouched down behind a mound of clay "petra?" "Shh! Get down!" Petra shushed the brunette, tugging him by the arm into a kneeling position beside herself "look!" She whispered, pointing ahead. And when jesse turned to look at what she saw, he couldn't believe his eyes..a zombie...not burning in the daylight..?? "Woah.."

"Well..you don't see THAT every day.." said cassie, receiving a 'SHH!' from the other two. "..why isn't it on fire..??" Jesse wondered quietly "i dunno...maybe it has something to do with whatever the heck is on its head??" Petra replied "there's only one way to find out." Said cassie, pulling out her axe. Petra smirked and cracked her shoulders, bringing out her sword "finally, something that we can agree on.."

The two girls rushed at the zombie, petra getting in the first strike with an arc slash followed by a kick to the spine, cassie going in with an axe chop to the abdomen. But the zombie was still standing as if completely unharmed.

They both backed up in alarm "..ooookaaaayyyy, zombies are deffinately NOT meant to do that.." said cassie, backing up "yeah, there's deffinately something weird about this zombie. Jesse! We could really use a bit of back up over here!!" "Don't worry guys, I'm coming!!" Jesse replied, unsheathing his own blade and charging into the fray "this oughta be a piece of cake-" he hit the zombie with his blade, the undead monster tanking the hit like a champ "..oookay, that doesn't seem right.." he swung again, eventually taking the zombie out by plunging his sword into its skull.

Jesse whiped the sweat from his brow "phew, that was a lot tougher than it should've been.." he panted lightly, petra resting her hand on his shoulder "it was just ONE zombie, what was the problem??" Asked ivor as he and lukas came over "clearly you guys didn't fight it," cassie huffed with a roll of her eyes "that thing was like some kind of 'super zombie'! Stronger, faster, more resilient.."

"Hope all this portal hopping hasn't worn me out, because that would be really inconvenient.." petra said as she worked on calming her racing heart "it deffinately seems weird.." said lukas, perching his chin up on his hand in thought "i don't think there's anything wrong with you petra, that was deffinately the zombie." Jesse said "i think what we should be worried about is who's putting those weird glowy things on monsters, and why." Said cassie, her arms crossed, a slightly frazzled winslow grooming his dust ridden fur.

"Actually i think we should be more concerned about THAT." Said lukas, pointing at a hoard of similar zombies marching up behind them, every one of their movements completely in sync in an unnaturally eerie way.

Everyone got their weapons at the ready "..welp, that seems about right." Said petra, backing away as the hoard grew closer "i dunno about you guys, but I'd like to find a much better way of handling these super zombies." Said jesse, accidentally tripping over his own feet and falling over, the group soon pinned against a mound of sand and clay.

The zombies stopped their advance.

"That...was unexpected.." said lukas, considering on sheathing his weapon with their foes now in a dormant state, but didn't wanna take any chances "maybe they're scared of us?" Jesse joked. Lukas chuckled "heh..yeah, i guess we are pretty formidable types, aren't we?" The blonde lightly poked a zombie with his blade, receiving no response.

With this moment of peace, jesse looked at the back of one of the zombie's heads, able to get a better glimpse of the strange glowing red device attached to the back of its skull "...what IS that thing..??" He wondered "well, guess we know where the redstone went." cassie shrugged, adjusting her glasses "fascinating.." ivor mumbled.

"Maybe those redstone things are what make the zombies so...blank?" Jesse inquired. Lukas wrote down this nugget of info in his journal, followed by a quick sketch of one of the chipped zombies "makes sense to me..i wonder if we should-" he was cut off as a loud staticky sound errupted from the hoard. Everyone clapped their hands to the sides of their heads in an effort to protect their innocent ears from the abrupt high pitched shriek, screaming in discomfort.

"What the hell are they doing??" Yelled cassie "aghh!! Its like it's inside my head..!!" Screamed ivor "i dunno what's going in here but we gotta go, STAT!!" said jesse, getting ready to make a run for it "don't have to tell me twice!!" Petra replied. Though, right when they were about to make a mad dash for the hills, the zombies stopped shrieking and turned around, limping off in another direction.

"..they're leaving? Just like that??" Said ivor, confused "they're going back the way we came from.." petra observed "this might sound crazy, but..i think they're trying to lead us somewhere." Said lukas "you're right about that, blondie. That does sound crazy." Said cassie, lukas raising a finger and opening his mouth to correct her, only to drop it with a huff, deciding that it wasn't worth the effort.

"..lukas might be right," said jesse, walking forwards "we should follow them, see where they go." Petra shrugged "alright, let's get moving.." she followed beside jesse, lukas to his other side and ivor and cassie in the back.

Our heroes followed the hoard of strange super zombies, but kept their distance to avoid an attack. Soon, they were lead to a mesa village nestled on the flat edge of the walls of a large canyon. They followed up a wooden staircase carved into the clay, reaching the eerily empty village.

"I don't see any people anywhere.." said Petra, taking in the disturbingly barren sights "I've heard of quiet, but this is like..MEGA quiet." Said jesse, turning to the others "fan out. And stay alert, don't let your guard down for one second." He said to them, the other for nodding before splitting up, lukas going with ivor while cassie went with petra, jesse going on his own.

Petra rushed to one of the buildings "hey, i TOLD you there'd be redstone!" She said "bit weird to have it stacked up in blocks like that though, isn't whoever lives- er, lived here concerned about theft?" Wondered cassie.

"Since we're on the topic of redstone, I'm intrigued by those...things on the backs of the zombie's heads." Said ivor "ooh, yeah me too." Said lukas, accompanying the long haired man as they left to check out the zombie pen. Ivor started to tug at one of the chips imbeded in one of the zombies "wait, what are you doing, ivor??" Asked jesse.

Ivor turned and looked at him "what does it look like I'm doing? I'm going to rip this redstone thing out of this zombie's head, for science!" He replied "they're...sleeping, or something. It'll be easy." Lukas huffed "well then just don't wake them up, okay? Just rip it off ...fast!" "Er...don't you think that's a little dangerous-??" Asked jesse, ivor scoffed "more dangerous for this zombie than for me...i think." He returned to trying to rip the chip out of the zombie's head, yelping when he got a sudden shock from the device.

"Are you ok??" Asked lukas "it's like it...SHOCKED ME!" Ivor replied. Jesse rolled his eyes slightly "i told you it'd be dangerous." he huffed. Ivor stood up and brushed himself off "yes, well, atleast we've learned something new; They can't be removed, not with our bare hands, anyway."

Jesse looked off to the side, noticing someone walking by in the distance "look, there's someone over there!" He said, everyone else seeing them aswell "think he's friendly?" Wondered lukas "hello? .....helloooo??" Jesse called to the individual "anybody else find it odd how he just...ignored us?" Asked cassie "yeah, that's..weird..." said jesse "I'm gonna go talk to him, you guys stay back a bit." He said, going after the man "ok...just be careful." Said petra "yeah, there's still a lot about this world that we don't know." Said lukas.

While the others went off to investigate on their own, jesse went off to find the man from before, cassie stealthily following behind him "cassie, i know you're there." The brunette sighed "yeah, sorry, old habit.." cassie said "i can't help but feel as if I've been here before.." she said, holding winslow close to her chest "there's something oddly familiar about it..."

"Maybe we'll find out why by talking to one of the locals?" Jesse suggested, stopping to read a sign " 'welcome to crown mesa, population: 1,063'.." he looked around at the nearly completely barren town "tch, yeah, right.." cassie rolled her eyes "wonder what happened to all of them.."

Jesse continued walking forwards, senses sharp and alert. He had a momentary chat with petra, the two of them finally back on the same terms. And soon, he and cassie had found the man as he rummagdd through a chest for materials "uh, hey there," jesse greeted, getting no reply "uh..hello?" Still no reply, the man just kept searching "hey, buddy! My friend is talking to yo-" cassie cut herself off when the man finally turned to them with a robotic beep, having the same red eyes as the zombies and chickens, causing both her and jesse to scream in terror "i-i what- h-huh??" Jesse said, struggling to process this "y-yeah, same, dude..!" Cassie said, winslow hissing at the man angrily.

The other three rushed to their friend's aid at the sound of their screams "soooo..i take it that he wasn't friendly?" Said petra "hah, didn't think I'd hear the infamous 'white pumpkin' scream- well, it was more of a yelp, but still!" Said ivor with a chuckle, causing the tips of cassie's ears to turn red "sh-shut it, gramps! I got startled, ok?? It happens!!" "Th-that guy i tried talking to-- trying to talk to..he wasn't human..." said jesse, struggled to calm down his terrified nerves, lukas resting a gentle hand on the brunette's shoulder as a small show of comfort "what do you mean by that?" He asked. Jesse looked at him "he was like the zombies we've been seeing. Red eyes, weird glowy head thing, blank expression.." he replied "..i don't like the sound of that." Petra said with a small shudder.

Suddenly, jesse caught a glimpse of someone running and sliding into one of the houses "jesse...?" Said lukas, eyebrows furrowed in concern "someone just ran into that house." Jesse said. Petra quirked an eyebrow "really? I don't see anyone." She said, looking around. Jesse ushered the others to follow him "come on, whoever they are... maybe they've got some answers."

Jesse went into the house and stood silently at the entrance, watching the hooded stranger as they rummaged through a chest, mumbling to themselves. "Ahahaha! There you are. Yes yes, that's the ticket.." she laughed in victory upon finding what she was looking for; those red chips installed on the people and mobs. Jesse's curiosity was peaked now. What did she need those for? He cleared his throat "funny, I'm guessing those don't belong to you."

The stranger turned around and jumped, dropping all the chips she had collected "gah!!" She yelped "..that you, PAMA?" she asked. Jesse couldn't understand "..what-?" She was suprised yet a bit relieved upon noticing that jesse wasn't a threat "ok then, ok, who sent you??" She asked "i didn't survive this long just to be picked off by some scrub, especially some weird dressed little scrub like YOU."

Jesse raised up his hands defensively "hey, nobody 'sent' me, ok?" The strange woman narrowed her eyes "you really expect me to believe that? What kind of fool do you think i am??" "Honest, i have no idea who you are!!" Jesse replied. The woman's guard faltered a bit "i don't- you are telling the truth, are you?" She said, astonished "ok, eyes, not red..NOT red..but that would mean..how??" She paced around in a circle, the others coming into the building "and there are MORE of you?? This should be..it's..impossible!!"

Cassie stepped forwards, eyes wide in shock "wait...harper-??" Harper looked at her with a similar reaction "wh- cassie rose..?? But i thought you were banished to-" "yeah, we kinda got her out of there?" Lukas explained. Harper stood in silence for a moment while casse struggled to process what she was seeing, quickly shaking it off "out with it. Who are you people, what is going on here, andHOW did you release cassie??" She demanded answers.

"I'm sensing some hostility and perhaps a bit of history.." said ivor, slowly stroking his beard "oh? And what was your first clue?" Petra said sarcastically "what waw that name before? Uh.. 'Pa-Ma' ?" Asked lukas as he brought out his journal.

"I know it might sound crazy, but we came here through a portal that also brought us to cassie's world--" "a portal? a PORTAL portal-??" Harper backed up in suprise, though jesse was clearly serious about it "okay. Okay. Okay okay okay, uhh.... been alone for a while, so this is a lot to take in.." she steadied her heart "the people - the citizens of crown mesa. You've met them, right? Maybe there's some outside?" "Uhh...kind of? I've talked to a man outside-" "just one?" Haper rested a hand on Jesse's shoulder "i know it's probaply hard to understand right now, but...if you meet any more people, - please don't hurt them, they're my friends." Jesse replied with a subtle nod.

"They're good people, i promise-" harper immediately began to freak out again "oh, oh, oh. No no no no no. I've wasted too much time!!" She backed away. Lukas noticed winslow looking at a window and hissing, swallowing nervously when he saw what they were hissing at "uh...jesse? Don't look now, but we've got company.." jesse went over beside the blonde and peered out the window to see a group of five robotic townsfolk approaching "is this what you're scared of? There's only five of them and six of us-" he shrugged, only to pause upon turning around to see that harper had left "urgh, of COURSE she ran away, she always does!!" Cassie groaned, kicking the carpet.

"They're deffinately not ignoring us now!!" Said petra as the five townsfolk entered the building and surrounded them, confining them to one spot on the wall "what do we do, jesse??" Asked cassie "er- i dunno, just..try to blend in!" Jesse replied "and HOW do you expect us to do THAT??" said ivor " try and look vacant, like them!" Jesse replied, the five dropping all emotion in their faces to mimic the townsfolk, only for them to keep coming " maybe try immitating the sounds they make-??" Jesse started to panic, all of them doing their best to mimic the shrieking static of the chips. That didn't work either.

"You are not of this place." The townsfolk said in unison "you're right -- this isn't our home." Jesse replied "we came here from... someplace else." He chose his words carefully "you have confirmed PAMA's suspicions." The townsfolk said "a decision has been made: PAMA has questions." One of the townsfolk grabbed petra by the arm, petra immediately retaliating by giving them a punch to thw face, only for the townsperson to slowly turn his head back towards her with no injury, causing even one of the bravest members ofthe group to back away in fear.

"You will come to PAMA."

"There's no way you are actually considering this, jesse.." said petra "since when do we take orders from..whatever-the-heck those things are??" "Why not go? We certainly won't get to the bottom of this if we stay here!" "We aren't going with you!!" Jesse snapped at the townsfolk. And despit their unchanging facial expressions, lukas could tell that they were mad "uhh..is it a good idea to keep resisting them-??"

"Alright gang, let's try not to hurt anybody -- too badly.." they started to fight, the chipped townsfolk displaying unnatural amounts of strength "nghh, these guys are suprisingly strong..!!" Said cassie as she struggled to keep one off of her with her axe. Jesse pushed a guy on him off, giving him a window to run for it..only to come face to face with the fist of another townsperson, and everything went to black.

"You will be made useful."

Chapter Text

Cassie felt as if her skull had caved in as she began coming to. The last thing she could remember was foggy..though she could've sworn she had been fighting with some freaky townsfolk before she got knocked over the head with her own axe. A groan came from her left, and through her blurry vision cassie could see a caramel-skinned figure stirring from their unconscious state.

'Jesse..?'

More disgruntled groans came from around her as the others began to awaken. One by one, they rose to their feet. Jesse brought a hand to his aching forehead, blinking rapidly from the vibrant rays of sunlight attacking his retinas "ngh..where...the heck..are we..." he mumbled, struggling to make an understanding of his surroundings.

They seemed to have been brought up to a platform made of quartz in front of a massive Redstone contraption, a whole army of those freaky chipped townsfolk and mobs stood on the clay and sand below, blank and unmoving.

The Redstone machine beeped and hummed, a vibrant green circle flashing from the black backdrop as it booted up. Smoke poofed out from beneath the machine, the circle disappearing to make way for an eerie green set of eyes and a mouth curved into a smirk, and despite the supposedly friendly demeanour of the machine, Cassie couldn't sense any emotion from it in the slightest.

"..what the heck is that..??" Whispered Lukas "I have no idea.." petra replied, slowly shaking her head "you don't suppose it's friendly..do you?" Said ivor.

"Well uh. I guess it is kind of friendly-looking...in a massively intimidating kind of way..." said Lukas, unable to shake this feeling of unease "I'm not getting good guy vibes from this thing, blondie..." whispered cassie "yeah I'm gonna have to agree with cassie on the 'not friendly' thing..." said Jesse "whatever it is, I think it's behind all this.."

"GREETINGS, FRIENDS. I AM PAMA." The machine spoke in a loud monotone voice "WE HAVE MUCH WORK AHEAD OF US, BUT MAYBE IT CAN EVEN BE...FUN. IF YOU CHOOSE TO COOPERATE, THAT IS."

Jesse shook his head "..so, wait- everything here is a part of you? You're controlling everything..??" He said, trying to make sense of it all "I AM MAKING EVERYTHING USEFUL. EFFICIENT. EFFECTIVE. I AM WHAT YOU MIGHT CALL A 'COMPUTER', A 'THINKING MACHINE'. DESIGNED TO MAKE THINGS USEFUL." PAMA replied "USING REDSTONE CHIPS, I HAVE CONNECTED TO THE PEOPLE OF THIS TOWN AND HELPED THEM BE USEFUL. COORDINATED. I HAVE MADE THEIR WORLD PERFECT. THANKS TO ME. THERE IS NO WASTED ACTIVITY. NO WASTED THOUGHT. I AM CONNECTED TO THEM, AND THEY ARE CONNECTED TO ME."

Jesse narrowed his eyes, not liking the sound of this.. "..ok. if this world is so 'perfect', what happened to all the people?" He asked "yeah. There..doesn't seem to be that many left." Said petra. Pama's expression shifted to that of..confusion, cassie guessed.

"PROCESSING INFORMATION . . ."

" 'processing information' ?" Lukas echoed, wondering what PAMA could be doing "it said it's a thinking machine, did it not?" Cassie pointed out "of course, thinking must take time!" Said ivor.

PAMA finished processing, its expression shifting from confused to being mildly displeased "I HAVE CONSULTED MY DATABASES - MY LIST OF EVERYONE AND EVERYTHING IN THIS WORLD - AND MY CONCLUSION IS THAT YOU ARE NOT FROM HERE."

"Oh boy, wonder what gave that away.." cassie huffed with a roll of her eyes since she and the others didn't exactly blend with the crowd.

"I WOULD LIKE TO ASK YOU SOME QUESTIONS - TO EXPAND MY DATABANKS." PAMA continued to speak "HOW DID YOU GET HERE?" A large green question mark appeared on its screen.

Jesse gulped nervously. This was gonna be risky..on one hand, he could tell PAMA the truth and potentially be let go..at the cost of everyone else both here and back home getting chipped. But on the other..he could lie, and they'd all get chipped anyways.

Well, it was a risk or nothing.

"We landed here after jumping through a portal," the brunette replied "a sort of doorway connecting different worlds."

"WHAT FASCINATING INFORMATION TO COMPILE." PAMA grinned, three dots once again flashing across its screen as it processed this new info "WHAT A LOVELY DAY. I AM VERY INTERESTED IN THIS PORTAL AND LOOK FORWARD TO EXTRACTING INFORMATION ON WHAT IS ON THE OTHER SIDE."

"Jesse!" A townsperson grabbed onto petra's arms and twisted them behind her back, restraining her movement, more townsfolk doing the same to everyone else with little to no effort.

"Grr..let. me. GO!!" Cassie strained in her captor's grip. Jesse narrowed his eyes, watching as petra was dragged towards some kind of machine, the redhead struggling and pulling with all her might to escape, all the while PAMA continued to speak.

"WE COULD HAVE JUST TALKED THIS OUT, YOU KNOW." The robot frowned "I AM JUST AS UPSET AS YOU ARE. REALLY. I AM." "W-WAIT! I-i don't know what you're doing, but stop! I'll give you more information!!" Jesse said in desperation to keep petra from getting chipped. PAMA made the townsperson halt his advance, turning petra back around "I AM LOOKING FORWARD TO LEARNING THIS NEW INFORMATION, PLEASE DO NOT LIE."

"THIS WORLD REACHED PEAK EFFICIENCY QUITE SOME TIME AGO. UNFORTUNATELY, THIS MEANT THAT I HAD NO MORE JOB TO DO, NO MORE THINGS OR PEOPLE TO HELP. UNTIL YOU ARRIVED, THAT IS. TELL ME, WHAT IS YOUR WORLD LIKE?" PAMA wondered, its cold emotionless eyes staring down at Jesse in anticipation of an answer.

"Well...it's a heck of a lot greener than this place," Jesse replied, "just imagine grass and trees instead of sand and clay."

PAMA smiled "THAT SOUNDS LOVELY. IT DOES. I THINK I WOULD LIKE TO SEE THIS WORLD FOR MYSELF." It thought for a moment, Jesse and cassie exchanging a glance between one another "IF I COULD SEND MY TOWNSPEOPLE, MY FRIENDS, THROUGH TO OTHER WORLDS, WE COULD CONTINUE TO GROW AND EXPAND. IT WOULD BE LOVELY. TELL ME, WHERE IS THE PORTAL THAT LEADS OUT OF THIS WORLD?"

Jesse swallowed a lump in his throat "PAMA, i can't tell you because i don't know! None of us do! Honest!!" He said, desperately wanting PAMA to believe him "after all, if we knew where it was, do you think we'd still be here?"

PAMA frowned "YOUR LOGIC IS SOUND. AND YOUR TONE IS GENUINE. BUT THE INFORMATION IS..." They processed Jesse's words "..NOT USEFUL." Petra could feel the dread pooling in her gut "MY JOB IS TO BE USEFUL. I HAVE COMPLETED MY JOB HERE AND MUST BE ALLOWED TO CONTINUE TO BE USEFUL."

"THANK YOU FOR BEING SO HELPFUL."

"Let me go!!" Lukas dug his heels into the floor, struggling to break free. The platform hummed with activity, four quartz pillars with Redstone cores emerging from the corners as the machine in the center activated. Two townspeople held either one of Petra's arms and pinned them to the sides, keeping her in place, the mechanism closing in around her head, lifting once a Redstone chip had been installed on the back of her head.

"WELCOME: PETRA. YAAAYYY!"

Lukas was next in line. The terrified blonde squirmed in his captor's hold, tensing when the freshly chipped petra grabbed onto his arm "hey, petra! S-snap out of it!!" He yelled, arms getting pinned to the sides, the machine readying another chip "Lukas!" Jesse yelled. Diamond and emerald eyes exchanged petrified glances between eachother for a few more moments...before the machine came down.

Jesse looked away as quickly as possible, breath wavering as he struggled to keep his tears at bay.

Cassie growled as she started to get pulled to the machine "get..your hands..off of ME..!!" She tugged her arm harshly from one of the townsfolk's grasp, immediately wincing from a quick shock of pain that ran through her forearm..oh yeah, she sprained something there...

"Jesse, this situation is looking a little dire, don't you think??" Ivor whispered harshly "THANKS CAPTAIN OBVIOUS!!" Cassie snapped.

"I KNOW YOU PROBABLY FEEL UNCOMFORTABLE. CONCERNED. BUT SOON, YOU WILL FEEL FINE. SOON, YOU WILL BE USEFUL." PAMA smiled. Jesse growled, freeing one of his arms as he turned to look at the robot "free my friends, NOW!!" He demanded, PAMA frowning in response, the townsperson putting both of Jesse's arms back under lock and key as they resumed moving him towards the machine, cassie getting put into position as soon as Lukas was done being chipped.

"WELCOME: LUKAS. YAAAYYY!!" PAMA cheered. "NOW FOR YOUR RED HAIRED FRIEND. I AM LOOKING FORWARD TO OBTAINING HER DATA THE MOST." Cassie narrowed her eyes "FAT CHANCE YOU VIRUS RIDDEN DIRT BLOCK! GET OUT OF THEIR HEADS FIRST!!" She hissed looking at Petra and Lukas.

"BUT THEIR HEADS ARE FULL OF SO MUCH LOVELY INFORMATION. IT MAKES ME HAPPY." PAMA smirked "WHAT AMAZING ADVENTURES YOU'VE HAD. A KILLER MANSION..." The three dots appeared on PAMA's screen. Jesse noticed something with each time this happened "huh, every time PAMA gets new information, it seems to get distracted while it 'processes'..."

Ivor nodded "yes, like a computer version of 'thinking'. Do you think there's a way to distract PAMA long enough for us to escape?" He asked, the chipping machine starting to make a low whirring noise "if you guys are coming up with a distraction, make it quick..!" Cassie whispered, ears drooping.

". . .A CITY IN THE SKY. . ."

Thinking.

". . .TOWNS AND MOUNTAINS EATEN BY A LIVING STORM. . ."

Jesse got an idea. Hopefully, this would work. "Let's tell PAMA a riddle, the hardest one in the book." He said to the other two "really? A riddle??" Cassie looked at him "Jesse might be onto something. A riddle might be just what we need to confuse PAMA's processors to let us escape..!" Replied ivor "what he's describing is a paradox! A self-contradictory statement!" "Hmh, well, if you say that it'll work, then i guess it might.." cassie managed a shrug.

"WHAT DO YOU THINK WOULD WORK ON ME??" Wondered PAMA. Jesse and ivor looked at eachother and smirked "ahh, nothing?" Ivor replied "IT DID NOT SOUND LIKE NOTHING." PAMA said, suspicion rising "none of your buisness rusty. Go back to rambling zeroes and ones." Cassie said, PAMA frowning in mild anger.

"PAMA, trust me when i tell you this: trust. No one." Jesse said to the machine. PAMA screwed up its face in response "SO IF I TRUST YOU, I SHOULD NOT TRUST ANYONE. BUT IF I DO NOT TRUST ANYONE, I DO NOT TRUST YOU?" A question mark flashed on its screen "SO I SHOULD NOT FOLLOW YOUR ADVICE AND THEREFORE NOT TRUST ANYONE. MEANING I SHOULD TRUST YOU WHEN YOU SAY TRUST NO ONE-" PAMA's screen flashed multiple symbols, smoke seeping out from all sides as it struggled to make any sense of this information "ERROR. ERROR. DIVERTING POWER."

The grip petra and lukas had on cassie's arms loosened, allowing her and the others to get free "alright, time to make like a tree and leave!"

"I'd listen to cassie if i were you, PAMA's a quicker thinker than you'd expect!" Said harper from the roof of a building.

"PARADOX STATUS: ON HOLD." PAMA halted its confusion "GASP. MY CREATOR! HAVE YOU FINALLY AGREED TO MERGE WITH ME?" It took notice of harper. Harper turned her back to the machine "oh don't you START with that again! Come on you three, this way!!" She gestured for jesse ivor and cassie to follow her as she jumped down from the building "c'mon, let's go after her!" Jesse rushed down the steps of the platform, cassie and ivor following along, all the chipped people and mobs immediately on the move to track them down.

There were countless close calls on the run to safety, and it was only a matter of time before they got cornered to the edge of the cliff "we're running thin on track here, jesse..!!" Said cassie as her heel touched the edge of the cliff "we use these to teleport down to the bottom!" Jesse replied, pulling out three ender pearls "huh, convenient." Cassie shrugged, both her and ivor taking a pearl each.

No time for aiming.

Jesse threw his pearl as far as he could, the orb landing at the bottom of the canyon, the three of them teleporting right in the nick of time before they got caught. Jesse groaned as he stood up "ngh, that will never not be disorienting..." he muttered, trying not to let his lunch climb into his throat.

"Hah, maybe you've got a better shot after all, new guys! Better stick with me though!" Harper said as she ran by "harper, wait!" Cassie ran after her, jesse and ivor following close behind as PAMA's minions got back on their trail.

"..a signal would've been nice!!" Said ivor, having fallen into a hole in the sand "oh quit complaining, gramps!" Cassie rolled her eyes as she jumped in, laying against the side of the pit, holding her injured arm "gotta tell you guys, that was some pretty smart work back there distracting PAMA. Now we just need to get off the grid. Get back into hiding so we can figure out what to do next." Said harper, kneeling down in the pit "some plan.." ivor rolled his eyes "watch that sass now." Harper narrowed her eyes "ahem, yes, ma'am..." ivor cleared his throat. Cassie fake gagged at the evident crush ivor had on harper.

"Hey, what about my friends? They're still chipped!" Said jesse, the concern for his friends coming back now that his adrenaline calmed down "i still might be able to save them. But first, I REALLY need your help.." Harper replied "what kind of help?" Jesse asked "probaply not the kind i needed when i got banished.." cassie muttered under her breath, harper giving her the faintest glance.

"We need to get to my secret labratory." Harper replied "well, let's get there fast- those zombies aren't just stronger than I've ever seen, they're also faster." Jesse replied "we'll need to split up -- you go to the lab, while i lead these mobs away, got it? And keep your eyes open for the big difference!" "Harper, wai-" cassie attempted to get in a question, but harper had already left the pit to distract PAMA's minions "ugh, typical.." she crossed her arms "how, exactly?" Asked ivor "not in a way you'd understand, old man." Cassie replied harshly, climbing out of the pit and running in the opposite direction harper went in.

"She is..intriguingly cryptic, isn't she?" Ivor said as he and jesse ran to where harper told them to go. Jesse paid no attention to his odviously in love father figure and kept his eyes locked on what was ahead, noticing something off about the horizon, and with the way cassie stopped to look, she must've noticed too "that's...weird.."

"What's a painting doing all the way out here..?" Cassie mumbled "how strange, it's an exact copy!" Ivor observed, looking between the painting and the part of the horizon it copied. Jesse did the same, eyes narrowed. Something was off. He then saw it. There was only one cactus in the painting, while there was two in the actual landscape "both cactuses aren't in the painting, i wonder..." cassie mumbled, walking over to it, noticing a trap door. She opened it, flicking the lever inside, the ground shaking as the sand gave way to reveal a hidden tunnel system "quick, let's go!!" Jesse called out, running for the entrance, some of PAMA's minions approaching in the distance.

The three of them landed in a small pond of water that was there to break their fall. Cassie ringed her hair out like a wet towel and cleaned her glasses, looking back up at the entrance, the mind controlled mobs falling from above, dieing immediately upon ground impact "heh, idiots..." cassie chuckled.

A zombie landed on a cobweb, surviving the fall through the pit "..i think you jinxed it cassie, because they just figured it out..." said jesse "oh gee, i wonder what gave that away.." cassie replied sarcastically.

Jesse punched the zombie, knocking it into the pond. The chip on the back of its head short circuited and released, the zombie becoming a normal zombie "huh, water turns it back to normal, who would've thought.." cassie shrugged, jesse rolling his eyes and stabbing the zombie with his sword "well, atleast we now know how to deal with these things." He said "water, of course!" Smiled ivor "the water must wash away the redstone! Once a zombie, always a zombie!"

"Guys, I'm afraid now isn't the time to nerd out about your newest discovery!" Said cassie, more PAMA mobs falling down onto the cobweb, one of them being winslow.

"How do you suppose we'll stop them??" Said ivor. Jesse looked around, taking notice of a lever. He rushed over to it and grabbed onto it "ivor! Cassie!!" He called to the other two, knowing exactly what this lever was gonna do. Cassie and ivor rushed to jesse's side, cassie wrangling an angry winslow along with her. The two males looked at her, cassie looked back "just flick the damn lever!!" She yelled, jesse nodding and doing exactly that, a wall of sand dropping down to block the entrance way, keeping PAMA's mobs from following them.

They all had a moment to breathe. Well, except for cassie, who still had a chipped cat to deal with. Winslow hissed and clawed and bit at his owner, cassie barely doing abything more than a flinch as she rushed the feline to the river, dunking them in, freeing them from PAMA's grasp. Cassie sighed in relief, allowing winslow to lick her face "happy to have you back, winslow.." she gently scratched the calico behind the ear.

"Phew. That should do the trick. Now let's see about this secret lab." Jesse stood up from where he caught his breath and walked down the tunnel, the other two accompanying him "let's hope whatever's down here can help us." Said ivor "it would make saving petra and lukas a lot easier if there's something useful in this 'secret lab' ."

"Even if harper's lab IS a bust, what we just learned about water disabling PAMA's chips seems super useful." Jesse replied "huh, glad to see you're maintianing a positive outlook despite our... 'setbacks'." Said cassie "i gotta say, harper has been the most intriguing person so far..I'm still not sure what to make of her." said ivor "granted, her creation nearly ended up destroying this world, but given my history? I'll give her the benefit of the doubt." Jesse raised an eyebrow " 'intriguing,' huh?" He smirked, ivor's face turning a faint red. Jesse chuckled, knowing very well that ivor was crushing hard "well, i gotta agree with you there. And she's gotten us out of some tight spots, so she's ok in my book."

"Happy to hear you giving credit when credit's due." Harper smirked as she stood against the side of the tunnel. Cassie paused to glare at her, harper able to feel the anger coming from the exiled old builder, she sighed "cassie, I'm gonna assume that you have questions?" Cassie looked off to the side in response "..listen, i'll explain it all soon. But first, lets get to my lab." "So..do you huys have some history, orrr...?" Wondered jesse "tch, none of your buisness, shortstack.." cassie scoffed, jesse being immediately offended "hey! I'm a decent 5'7, thank you very much!" He puffed out his chest with confidence.

"..so, jesse, right?" Said harper as they trekked towards the lab "i heard that blonde guy call you that." Jesse nodded "yeah that's my name, and this is ivor. Our friends up there are petra and lukas." He replied "mhm. You're probaply already aware that my name is harper, thanks to a little someone.." harper glanced at cassie, who was staying a little ways behind the group "now, mind explaining why you lead PAMA's forces right to my secret lab??" She rested her hands on her hips, It was clear that harper wasn't exactly happy about PAMA's mind controlled mobs knocking at her doorstep "seems to me that I've got a whole lot of angry computer controlled mobs out there wanting to tear some holes in my lab."

Jesse scratched the back of his neck "..yeeeeaaahhhh..sorry about that-" he replied "uh huh, i'll be sure to use that 'sorry' for protection when that crazy computer is breaking down my door." Harper rolled her eyes, voice dripping with sarcasm "what are you doing in this world, anyways? You here to steal my secrets?" "What?? No!" Jesse shook his head, harper staring at him with suspicion "just figured i'd ask -- better safe then sorry 'nd all that." She turned around, resuming the walk forwards "bunch of you are the first people i've seen come out of the portal network in forever, so you'll have to excuse me if it made me a little...anxious." jesse raised his eyebrows "woah, you know about the hallway?" He asked.

" 'the hallway' ? That's what you've been calling it?" Harper laughed "yes, maybe. What do you know about it, anyway?" Wondered ivor "alot, i should think. Me and cassie back there helped build the dang thing." Harper replied "but that would make the two of you...old builders!" Jesse gasped. Harper chuckled a bit "heh, forgot you people called us that." "I'm not even that old!!" Cassie shouted from behind "it never was my favorite name either, makes me feel like some sort of living statue."

"Well, seeing that you're also an old builder, can't you help my friends get free of PAMA?" Jesse wondered. Harper pursed her lips, eyes slightly narrowing "..I'm afraid that's a little out of my abilities right now. PAMA's just too powerful. And besides...there's actually no exit portal back to the portal network from this world.." "what? Why not??" Jesse wondered, confused "..i destroyed it so PAMA couldn't get free." Harper replied with a moment of hesitation "it was impulsive, but it was the only way i could think of to make sure PAMA didn't try and spread to other worlds! Keep tryin' to make things 'useful'."

"Ok. Well, that's fine. Can't you just build another one?" Jesse wondered with a shrug. Harper looked at him, an eyebrow raised "are you basic or somethin' ?? I can't do that while PAMA's still running!" "Speaking of PAMA, what is it?" Asked ivor, curious "i swear, i made PAMA with good intentions. It was designed to automate things, make everything more efficient, use monsters to help with farming or mining...until the day PAMA decided that the townspeople weren't efficient enough already! Started making them 'useful'." She resumed walking, brow furrowed in regret "since then, I've just been trying to stay one step ahead. Figure out how to stop it." "By the way; back in town, PAMA seemed to really want to capture you - what was up with that?" Jesse asked.

"When PAMA chips someone, everything that person knows gets absorbed into its database," harper explained "if i got chipped... PAMA would know how to build an exit portal, so you can see why i'd want to stop that from happening at any cost." "Yes, that is quite the extraordinary risk." Said ivor "huh, guess that explains why PAMA was really interested in chipping me specifically..." muttered cassie with a shudder "..so what you're telling me is that your brain is super dangerous and can't go anywhere near PAMA." Jesse summed up what harper said in the simplest format he could think of "How are you supposed to help us with any of this?"

"I do think i can help you - with PAMA, your friends, getting you out of here... but to do it we're going to need to go to my lab." Harper replied "what's in your lab that's so important?" Asked cassie, having jogged up to keep up with the group, genuinely a little bit intrigued "it's...complicated." harper replied as they finally arrived "before we head inside we better get my defense system going. Don't want those chipped-up creeps followin' us in." Harper went to a wall and flicked a lever connected to it, some cauldrons popping out of the ground "mind grabbing a bucket of water for me? Ron's got it." She gestured to a block of clay with a creeper head on it.

Jesse and ivor approached the bizarre substitute for a companion, the..thing, speaking in a monotone voice as a greeting "harper..?" Jesse looked at the older woman in mild concern "what? Don't you judge me. Living alone gets lonly!" Harper retorted "tch, atleast when I got trapped alone for several years, i had ACTUAL living beings to keep me sane.." cassie scoffed with a roll of her eyes.

Harper received the bucket of water from jesse, explaining to him and ivor the reasoning behind the unusually complicated set up of her defense system. Once he knew what to do and set off to set up the rest of the cauldrons, harper took this chance to finally speak with cassie. She approached the younger old builder, clearing her throat "cassie," she spoke. The redhead didn't turn towards her, keeping her attention on winslow.

Harper sighed and stood next to cassie, raising a slow hand to rest on her shoulder "cassie, i know you have a lot on your mind at the moment, and i-" "oh, now you notice??" Cassie snapped "I've been trying to talk to you ever since we were on the run from your hunk of junk robot! But every single time i got completely ignored, JUST like how you never payed the slightest attention towards me when i was getting banished!" Cassie struggled to keep her voice firm and from wavering, blinking away the tears in her eyes "you didn't even bother to come and get me yourself!! Do you have any idea how it feels?? To be alone, isolated in another world with no way out??"

Harper stood and took it. She could tell that cassie had a large quantity of pain on her shoulders, all because of her own simple mistake...she inhaled and exhaled, wanting to make up for her past "..i know how it feels to be alone for a large amount of time, if that wasn't odvious...and i never purposefully tried to ignore you when you were being sent away, i..." she paused. Cassie narrowed her eyes with a sniffle "y-you what??" Harper hesitated "...i..was a complete coward...i chickened out! The other old builders were gettin' worse and worse by the day, and i didn't want to get on hadrian's bad side, so..." "so you just LET them do that to me??" Cassie whiped away tears with her sleeve, winslow mewing in concern, looking up and licking at her face.

"..cassie, if i had been just a little more brave, i would've done all that i could to save you." Harper said, guild setting in, remembering how she stood and watched as a frightened thrashing cassie was dragged and tossed into a portal, never to be seen again for several years "you can hate me all you want even moreso then you already do, i just wanted you to know that.." the two stared at eachother, cassie's red teary eyes looking up at the taller woman. She sniffled once more, whiping at her eyes with her sleeve once again. She put winslow down on the ground to free her arms, and, without warning, gave harper the biggest hug she could muster "i-i don't completely forgive you..b-but..it's a start.." she grinned as fresh streams of tears dripped from her eyes, harper returning with her own embrace.

Cassie pulled away from the embrace, noticing jesse and ivor staring "w-what??" She asked the brunette, face turning red "nothing! Just didn't think i'd see you like..this." jesse replied "hey, even tough girls gotta cry. Now get back to settin' the defense system, who knows when PAMA's little henchmen will show up." Harper waved the boys off, taking notice of cassie's injuries "lemme fix you up." she looked into her inventory "that's unnecessary, harper. It's only a few scratches, i'll be fine." Cassie shook her head "can't be too sure, now hold still," harper used a cloth to clean the claw and bite marks, putting bandages over them "since when did you have all this medical stuff?" Cassie asked while harper tended to her sprained arm "gotta keep prepared out there, don't i? Besides, all that rummaging through chests ain't for nothin'." Harper replied with a small chuckle.

An explosion rocked the tunnel, getting everyine's senses on edge "oh no.." jesse muttered "we still need to activate the other cauldrons! Hold 'em off to buy me some time," Harper said, grabbing a bucket and rushing to fill the rest of the cauldrons "and whatever you do, don't get caught. I'm not about to get left alone again." Cassie nodded "you got it!"

Jesse and cassie went to the entrance of harper's lab, jesse feeling immediate dread as lukas and petra, both still chipped, approached along with some mobs "YOU COULD'VE MADE THIS MUCH EASIER FOR YOURSELF." Said petra as she and lukas drew their swords, voice barely audible through PAMA's robotic corruption. Jesse took a few steps back, hand reaching for his blade "c'mon, petra! This isn't you!" "THERE IS NO PETRA..ONLY PAMA." Petra replied, lukas going after cassie and ivor.

"I KNOW ALL OF YOUR MOVES, JESSE. YOU CANNOT DEFFEAT ME." Petra swung her blade, Jesse quickly blocking the blow "WHY EVEN BOTHER FIGHTING?"

"Ahh!!" Ivor sputtered, water cascading down right on top of him as harper set up another cauldron, Lukas jumping out of the way. Cassie ran and leaptim, only for Lukas to whip around and block her blow with his sword, knocking her down "THE TIME FOR TALKING.." "..IS OVER."

Jesse took down a chipped spider that almost had the jump on him, panting lightly. Harper managed to activate the next cauldron as both ivor and cassie were taken out by Lukas, the two of them laying on the floor.

"END OF THE LINE, JESSE," Lukas said as he started closing in on the brunette, petra coming in from the other side. Jesse's heart beat rapidly. As he started getting back to a corner, his mind raced for a plan. Thankfully, his solution was all around him; water. What was difficult though...who would he free first.

Petra was his best friend. They both read each other like a book, always in sync in combat and picking on eachother.

But Lukas...he felt different about Lukas. Ever since the end of the wither storm's reign, he wanted nothing more but to be around the blonde male, having dearly missed him whenever they were apart. squeezed his eyes shut...and ran right. Tackling whoever was in that direction into a pillar of water.

..it wasn't Lukas.

Petra groaned as the chip in her head short-circuited and released, freeing her from PAMA's command "night...Jesse..?" She rasped "god that was awful..." she rubbed her head, accepting the brunette's offered hand to help her up.

"Uhh.Jesse??" Ivor pointed at harper, who had gotten cornered by Lukas "harper, hold on!!" Cassie rushed to her aid, being too late as Lukas grabbed harper, using a spider to escape "cassie, fill the last cauldron!!" She yelled down to the redhead "don't forget the headset!! And one more thing! Give the roses to harry!!" She threw a rose down "wh- who the fuck is harry???" Cassie questioned, harper, getting carried away for good.

Chapter Text

"Wh-who the fuck is harry??" Cassie was only able to ask this before harper dissapeared from her view. She cursed under her breath, rushing inside the lab once she noticed the doors were open.

The group was finally able to have a moment to breathe from running and fighting. Cassie gently scratched winslow behind the ear, receiving a low purr from the feline as he curled up on her lap, falling asleep in seconds. To her right was jesse, the hero holding his knees to his chest, sorrow in his eyes. Ivor lingered near the door to make sure everything was 100% alright, while petra sat a little ways away from jesse, the redhead piecing together her scrambled mind from being under PAMA's influence. Cassie hoped harper could resist long enough for them to figure out a plan...

"I-i i'm..sort of remembering something..." said petra, trying to focus on what little of her memory while being chipped she had "..f-from when i was 'chipped', that seemed sort of important to PAMA.." the other three looked towards her with intrigue. Cassie raised a brow "well?" "I-it was tall, with glowing red lights, and..." petra tried to search for more but to no avail "argh..sorry, nothing else is coming up, it was all like a fuzzy dream, and thanks to this headache..." she whinced at an increasing pulsing pain in her head, raising a hand to her temples. Ivor had his hands on his hips "well, that's something, at least.." he said, looking towards jesse, the brunette watching his friend with concern.

"It was...s-so strange...seeing other people's senses and thoughts and memories at the same time..." petra rested her head in her hands, a little overwhelmed. Jesse hoisted himself off the floor to approach his friend, kneeling down infront of her "just take it easy for a while. After what you went through, you could probaply use some rest.." he said with a hand outstretched, petra holding onto it as jesse helped her to her feet.

"I think we should get moving, harper needs us." Said cassie as she rose up from the ground, winslow in her arms. Jesse nodded "agreed. Harper said that some kind of headset in her lab could help us, let's just hope we can find it in time before PAMA can start downloading her mind." He said, leading the group down the hall.

"So..what's so important about this harper person?" Asked petra, confused "if PAMA gets their grubby robotic mits on harper's brain, then it'll have access to the information neccessary for making a portal," explained cassie "and if it makes a portal.." jesse added in "our home and all the other realms will be made 'useful'." Ivor finished.

Petra blinked once, eyebrows furrowed "jeez, this is really serious, then.." "which is all the more reason why we need to shut this thing down!" Said cassie, reaching into her inventory and bringing out the rose "i just wish i knew what she meant about 'giving this to harry'..." "..aaand that's meant to help us find this headset thing?" Petra inquired, cassie nodded "presumably, yes."

Petra turned to jesse "jesse, are you sure harper hasn't, like, completely lost it? When people are by themselves for a really long time, it's not good for their health.." she said, ignoring the stink eye from cassie. She wasn't alone for all those years, she had winslow! Harper...yeah, she had to get a bit creative with her...'friends'.

"Harper isn't crazy, she's just...eccentric." jesse replied "also, cassie was by herself for several years too, and she's alright." He pointed out "alright-ish." Ivor added on "you're completely forgetting that she tried to..you know..."

"Jeez, you guys REALLY can't let that go, can you..." cassie muttered, shaking her head with a sigh as they reached the main room of the lab "y'know..she built this place a little weird, but i guess i shouldn't judge her too harshly.." said petra as her eyes scanned the room "well, she did say it's way more complicated than it should be to keep PAMA out, so..." said cassie with a shrug.

"Guys, right now we need to focus on finding the headset. For starters, keep your eyes open for anyone..or anything, called 'harry'." Jesse told the others, their search beginning right away.

Cassie poked around the lab, hearing jesse get confused about a book written by someone named soren..something about that name was familiar. She ignored the thought and just kept looking around, following winslow to a structure made of wood planks and wool, a zombie head perched up on top and an item frame on the front of the wool block. Winslow hopped up onto the structure and mewed, pawing at the item frame.

Cassie cocked an eyebrow "you think this is harry..?" She asked the cat, winslow hopping down from..'harry', and running his body across cassie's legs with a purr. Cassie shrugged "alright, if you say so.." she pulled out the rose again, placing it in the item frame "er..here...?"

Upon putting in the rose, a redstone signal ran through the floor. Looks like there was a puzzel to solve. Thankfully, cassie was quite good at those. Took a good few minutes to get it figured out, but eventually she solved them all and powered up...something.

Everyone went to the glass platform, watching as an armor stand with a peculiar piece of headware perched on top of it rose from the floor "guess this is the headset she was talking about.." said cassie as she took it off the stand, turning it in her hands "cassie, you should use it to save harper." Said jesse, the scarlet haired girl looking at him in mild confusion "she means an awful lot to you, it only seems fair to let you do it." Jesse smiled, cassie hesitating before returning with her own.

She took a deep breath, and put the headset on "alright...let's do this." She stepped into the center.

It was dark for a moment as the machine powered up, though the voice of ivor was unmistakable "well? What do you see, cassie??" He asked "i'm...starting to see something..." cassie replied. Chipped zombies came into view, laying dormant. She looked around, then down, realizing she was in control of one of the chipped zombies.

"Well? What do you see?" Asked jesse "i'm...outside..?" Cassie replied, still struggling to understand this "but you're right here!" Said ivor, grunting from a punch to the shoulder from petra "she must've gotten control of one of the chipped mobs or something.." she said "like some sort of...mob view..?" Said jesse "what a preposterous name, i love it!!" Ivor grinned. Cassie rolled her eyes "we can save the name game for later. Right now though, i gotta hurry and save harper."

"C'mon cassie, you gotta be atleast the slightest bit amazed that harper made something that can control one of PAMA's lackeys!" Said jesse. Ivor nodded "yes, agreed. I knew the old builders were capable of some extraordinary feats, but this..this is a whole new level of redstone enginuity!"

Cassie groaned "alright, yeah, i guess it's a little cool.." she didn't have any time to waste. She had to save harper right away. She looked around, noticing something odd "huh, i thought there was a stairway here..." "you mean it's been removed??" Said ivor in suprise "guess PAMA isn't the dumb virus ridden dirt block i thought it was.." cassie said with a shrug. Now she needed to find another way up to the chipping platform. If only she had ender pearls...

"See if you can find anything to craft with, there's gotta be something!" Said jesse, cassie nodding and scanning the area "huh, nothing but sand, clay, and dirt, who would've thought..." she said sarcastically, looking at the stack of sand in her inventory "sand isn't the most useful material, but you CAN still craft with i-" "SSHHHH!!!" Cassie quickly shushed jesse as she saw one of the zombies begin to stir, quickly pretending to be unconcious so it would return to its dormant state.

Cassie heaved a breath of relief "phew, that was close..." "PAMA's deffinately gonna be catching on soon, so i think you should pick up the pace." Said petra "don't have to tell me twice." Cassie replied, getting to work collecting more sand, using the conveniently placed crafting table in one of the pens to craft it all into sandstone blocks just as the other zombies caught on that she wasn't quite right. Building her way up to the staircase with the sandstone, cassie rushed up the stairs to get to harper.

"INTERFEARANCE DETECTED."

"DRONE SEQUENCE INITIATED. TRACE SUBROUTINE INITIATED."

"Oh shit.." cassie muttered under her breath "IS THAT YOU, JESSE?" Asked PAMA's voice "tch, yeah, wrong guy scraps!" Cassie scoffed, continuing her rush up the stairs, stopping when she suddenly heard a beeping in her ear, a red aura surrounding her body. That can't be good. "AH. HELLO, CASSIE. PETRA AND LUKAS SPOKE FONDLY OF YOU." PAMA's voice eminated that stupid robotic smile "yeah, i'm sure they did!" Cassie said as she resumed going up.

"Cassie, who are you talking to??" Asked jesse with worry "it couldn't be PAMA, could it?" Said ivor "yeah, it's PAMA. And right now, i'm its target." Cassie replied, staying focused on climbing the staircase, only to wound up surrounded by skeletons on one side and zombies on the other.

"YOU ARE BEING SILLY, CASSIE. YOU HAVE BEEN SURROUNDED. ONCE MY CREATOR IS MADE USEFUL, ALL HER KNOWLEDGE WILL BE MINE. YAAAAYYY." PAMA cheered. Cassie growled "not if i stop you, first!!" Mobs started ripping at her zombified body, her heart beginning to race for an exit, and out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a skeleton surrounded by a blue aura. Somehow, she was able to zap her mind over to the skeleton, leaving her previous host behind to be dismantled "oof, that's rough..." she muttered before continuing her climb.

"INTERFERANCE REMAINS."

"Shit shit shit..!" Cassie muttered as she picked up the pace.

"DRONE SEQUENCE RE-INITIATED. TRACE SUBROUTINE RE-INITIATED."

More mobs came cassie's way just as she caught sight of harper at the chipping terminal. No time to waste.

"TERMINATION SEQUENCE ACTIVATED."

"Ohh boy, running low on options now..." cassie could feel her heart rate elevate as a red aura surrounded her body again "END OF THE LINE, CASSIE. RESISTANCE IS...NOT USEFUL." said PAMA with a frown "NOT USEFUL MY ASS!!"

"do you see lukas anywhere??" Asked jesse hastily. Cassie shook her head "nope, blondie isn't anywhere around here as far as i see." She replied, slowly getting pinned into a corner, quickly zipping to a skeleton and following a group of other skeletons closer to the platform, transporting to a spider so she could skitter up the wall of the platform.

Harper grunted and struggled in the grip of the two chipped zombies that fought to keep her in place, slowly losing the battle. Cassie clicked the chelicerae of her current spider host, she was NOT gonna let this happen!! She rushed the zombies, using he spider's jumping ability to pounce on one, immobilizing the other with silk.

Harper watched with confusion as a spider took out its fellow chipped mobs, though something about the way it looked up at her with joy in its eight ruby red eyes seemed familiar "..cassie??" The spider chittered, harper smiling at it "you found my transmigrational headset!" The reunion was short lived, as PAMA was still running its programs, not giving up on making harper useful.

"Did you find her??" Asked ivor "yup! Now to blow this slimeball stand!" Cassie replied, jumping up and down as she tried to tell harper to follow. Harper nodded "follow me!" Harper said, running from the terminal. Cassie rolled her eyes "that's what i said.." she muttered, not waiting a moment longer to follow after her.

"WHERE DO YOU PLAN TO RUN?" Says PAMA as a croud of chipped mobs and people block the exit "THE TOWN IS SURROUNDED. REINFORCEMENTS WILL ENSURE THAT MY CREATOR CANNOT LEAVE. "

"There's too many of them!!" Harper exclaimed, yelping when cassie suddenly dragged her undernearh one of the huts in an attempt of finding cover.

"YOU CAN'T PLAY HIDE AND SEEK FOREVER, CASSIE. IT'S A BORING GAME. AND I AM TOO STRONG."

"..There!" Harper pointed to an opening that all the chipped mobs and people were coming out of "that door leads to PAMA's central core!" She said. Cassie nodded in understanding, about to rush in, only for PAMA to lock onto her position again, townsfolk closing in on the two of them.

"Cassie! You and your friends..you're our only hope!-" a townsperson began to drag harper away "harper!!" Cassie gasped "you need to remove the redstone heart!! Remove the redstone heart!!!" Harper yelled as she was was getting dragged away "cassie, what's going on??" Asked ivor, concerned. Cassie clenched her jaw, backing away as mobs closed in "you can STILL save everyone!!" Harper said with a sigh "i'm so tired of being dragged away when i'm trying to explain things!!!"

"I-i won't let you down harper! I promise!!" Cassie exclaimed. Her heart pounded in her chest. If only she could do somethingm harper was RIGHT there. And yet she had little to no room to move..

"DRONE IDENTIFIED. HIDE AND SEEK IS DONE, CASSIE."

A townsperson pinned cassie's arachnoid body to the ground, other townsfolk circling in, ripping at her eight legs. Cassie could feel her connection begin to falter.

"I THINK WE COULD MAKE THAT HEADSET...USEFUL." PAMA grinned.

"BEGIN...TERMINATION SEQUENCE."

"GAAHHH!!!" cassie groaned in pain, sparks and smoke eminating from the headset as she struggled to remove it. She tossed it across the ground once it finally removed itself from her head, exploding into smog seconds later. Cassie panted heavily, feeling tears threaten the corners of her eyes "cassie, are you ok??" Asked jesse, his worry accompanied by winslow's as he pawed at cassie's leg.

Cassie sniffled and blinked the tears from her eyes, cleaning and adjusting her glasses with a deep breath "..let's end this." She said in a serious tone. Petra stepped up "woah woah, hold on. It sounded like you were talking to harper, and...PAMA?" cassie huffed "yep, that hunk of scrap caught up to me pretty quick. But i was able to find out where PAMA's core was." She replied.

"but..what happened to harper??" Petra asked "..gone. she's probaply been chipped by now," cassie replied, reaching into her inventory and pulling out an axe, the sky blue head of the weapon shimmering in the soft white lights of the lab, along with cassie's desire for revenge.

"but i'll make sure to free her no matter what."

Chapter Text

"How are we gonna stop PAMA??" Asked ivor "i'm not sure, but we gotta find out how, and quick." Jesse replied "harper said something about destroying the redstone heart, so i think that's one of our leads." Said cassie, petra suddenly looking like all the wind was knocked out of her "woah, that just brought back..a flash..." she took a moment to regain her grasp on reality "those..red lights i mentioned before? There were three of them, redstone spires, i think. And they might have something to do with the heart. That's..that's all i've got...sorry.." she sighed.

Jesse gave her an affirmative pat on the shoulder "it's ok, petra. Atleast it's something." He said to her, instilling some confidence "but how are we supposed to destroy these spires, or whatever the heck we're looking for??" Asked ivor "i think i know how," said cassie, holding three buckets full of water "PAMA doesn't react very well to water, right? So we should use these to disable the pillars so we can get to the redstone heart." She tossed a bucket to petra and jesse. Jesse nodded at her "alright, let's go wreck the heck out of PAMA!" he said "lead the way, jesse." Ivor grinned.

Jesse snuck up a set of stairs, looking back and forth "c'mon." He gestured for the others to follow, cassie ivor and petra following behind their leader through PAMA's camp, narrowly avoiding getting spotted by a chipped spider as they dove behind some sandstone.

"Where the hell is this 'PAMA core' anyways??" Ivor questioned, looking at cassie "somewhere on the other side of all these mobs.." cassie replied as she put winslow down, but there were far too many mobs running about to take any risks "you guys have anything we could use?" Asked jesse, everyone emptying their inventories.

"Is...that the flower i had to give to harry-" cassie wondered, looking at ivor. The older man glared "what? I thought maybe harper would want it back...or maybe i could keep it..." he replied, a faint red hue dusting his cheeks "oooohh~ someone's in loooooveeeee~~" cassie teased, causing ivor's blush to darken "wh- preposterous!!" He snapped back.

"Guys, quiet!!" Jesse hissed in a harsh whisper, the four of them ducking as a zombie limped on by. Jesse scanned the items, noticing two potions "these are the last potions i made before leaving home. A potion of swiftness, and a potion of leaping." Said ivor. Jesse nodded "those might come in handy."

"Wait, i think i know how we can clear a path." Said cassie "we can use the redstone to make a wire that connects to a bunch of tnt, then use this button to activate it and make us an opening!" She explained. Jesse grinned "alright, let's do it."

"There's a potion for both of you, good luck." Said ivor, offering the two potions. Jesse and cassie split the tnt and redstone between eachother as they took one. Jesse with swiftness, and cassie with leaping. Cassie looked at winslow, running a hand along his back "i won't be gone long, ok?" She said to the calico "we'll keep him safe." Said petra. Cassie looked at her "thanks." She grinned, then popped the cork and downed her potion.

No time to waste. Cassie was able to jump from block to block with ease as she traversed the field of mobs, dropping tnt and connecting them with lines of redstone. To her left, jesse was running about and doing the same. They both met up at the same spot and clicked the button, blowing PAMA's forces sky high and allowing them to access the core.

"IS THAT YOU, CASSIE? BECAUSE THIS WON'T WORK." Said PAMA's voice as it booted up "MY FORCES WILL PROTECT THE EXIT PORTAL. MY FRIENDS HAVE ALMOST FINISHED BUILDING OUR NEW EXIT PORTAL, AND THEN WE'LL MAKE ALL OTHER WORLD'S USEFUL. YAAAYYYY. YOU CANNOT DEFFEAT ME. YOUR DEFFIANCE IS NOT USEFUL."

"Oh no..." jesse's voice was riddled with dread. Cassie's ears perked up at the sound of ivor trying to catch his breath "i think PAMA caught our scent." She said to them. Petra crossed her arms "huh, i wonder if those EXPLOSIONS had anything to do with it." She said. Cassie just rolled her eyes "listen. The townsfolk are almost done with their exit portal, we can't waste anymore time..!"

"I WILL FIND YOU, CASSIE. I HAVE LOTS OF FRIENDS."

A chipped zombie climbed up to where the heroes were standing, followed closely by hundreds of other chipped mobs. Petra took her bucket from her inventory, handing it to cassie "quick, take this." She said, rushing at the chipped mobs and slashing them with her sword to keep them at bay "we'll hold them off! Save harper and lukas!"

Cassie took the bucket from the other girl and nodded, putting it in her inventory "cassie, let's move!" Jesse ushered for the redhead to follow as he ran into the core, cassie close behind.

Jesse and cassie stepped into the core. An odd shiver ran up cassie's shoulders as a low thumping noise got louder, almost like the beating of a...heart.

She looked up. A platform in the center of the core with the redstone heart secure inside, three redstone pillars in a triangular formation around it, channeling energy into the heart. "The three spires!" Jesse exclaimed "looks like what petra said was right." Said cassie. The two of them carefully approached the core.

PAMA's screen flared to life, giving the two a near heart attack. Cassie swiftly drew her axe, glaring up at the grinning machine "HELLO, CASSIE. I, OF COURSE, HAVE BEEN EXPECTING YOU." Said PAMA "JESSE IS HERE TOO, I SEE."

Cassie kept a firm grip on her blade "yeah, we're here." "And we're gonna take you down from the inside!" Jesse nodded.

PAMA's expression went neutral "I WILL ADMIT THAT I AM SUPRISED HOW QUICKLY YOU GAINED ACCESS. MY DEFENCES ARE SIGNIFICANT. YOYR RESISTANCE TO ME IS...ILLOGICAL."

Cassie scoffed "we didn't come here to talk, tin can. We're here to shut you down!"

"YOUR BRAVERY IS AN IMPRESSIVE QUALITY. I LOOK FORWARD TO STUDYING THAT ASPECT OF YOUR PERSONALITY, ONCE YOU HAVE BEEN MADE USEFUL."

"You'll have to make ME useful first!!" Said jesse, standing up in front of cassie, who facepalmed "hey, i thought that sounded cool!" Jesse said to her "it wouldn't work like that, ya know. We'd both get chipped either way."

PAMA thought for a moment "OUT OF SIMPLE CURIOSITY; HOW EXACTLY DID YOU PLAN TO DEACTIVATE ME? NOW THAT YOU UNDERSTAND THAT YOUR MISSION IS A FUTILE ONE.." It asked.

"That's for me to know, and--" "ME TO FIND OUT. HA HA. HA HA." PAMA cut jesse off to complete his sentance with a laugh "I'M SURE YOUR PLAN IS FUTILE."

Cassie narrowed her eyes "we'll have to see about that!!" She rushed to one of the pillars, getting stopped in her tracks as zombies and spiders blocked her path "cassie! I'll take the left, you take the right!" Said jesse, cassie nodded at him "right!" They both went in their respective directions, slashing their way through chipped monsters.

Jesse jumped off of a chipped spider so he could climb up the tower, gaining access to the block of redstone at its peak "YOU MERELY DELAY THE INEVITAVLE." PAMA said to him "are you sure about that, PAMA??" jesse said as he drenched the redstone in water from his bucket, the red beam it emitted fizzling out as the tower shut down.

"YOU ARE VERY GOOD AT BEING A NUISANCE. BUT NOT GOOD ENOUGH."

Cassie deactivated the second pillar with one of her buckets, this time it finally detered PAMA a little "YOU HAVE INFFLICTED: MINIMUM DAMAGE. OWIE." The redhead grinned "yeah, cry about it!" She lept down from the spire and went after the last "YOUR EFFORTS STILL REMAIN INEVITABLE."

"If i've had a piece of iron for every time i heard that before." Jesse muttered as he ran for the last pillar along with cassie.

"You will relinquish your water." A chipped harper stood in the two heroes's way "BOTH OF YOUR ATTEMPTS TO DEFEAT ME HAVE BEEN...IMPRESSIVE. YOUR TENACITY, SPITE, AND SPIRIT WILL HELP TO IMPROVE ME ONCE YOU BOTH ARE MADE USEFUL." said PAMA with a robotic glare.

"Yeah, like that'll ever happen!!" Said cassie, eyes still locked onto harper. Harper lunged at cassie, who rolled out of the way "jesse, catch!!" She tossed her remaining bucket to jesse as she fought the older woman "i'll hold her off, get the last spire!!"

Jesse caught the water bucket and hastily nodded, climbing up the remaining tower "this is getting sad. The odds of you both defeating me is 3720 to 2." Said harper as she began to overpower cassie, who continued to put up a good fight "NEVER tell me the odds!!"

"Me neither!" Jesse drenched the last pillar. The redstone signal fizzled out, causing another bout of major damage to PAMA's systems "YOU WILL NEVER DEFEAT ME!! I WILL FIND YOUR HOMEWORLD AND MAKE EVERYONE YOU CARE FOR USEFUL. IT WILL BE GREAT." Harper exclaimed as jesse joined the frey. The brunette grinned as he and cassie slowly overpowered her "not losing your cool now, are you PAMA?"

"How about a little WATER to cool you down!" One last shove from cassie sent harper falling backwards, her chip short circuiting in the water and setting her free.

"MY CREATOR! NO!!!" PAMA gasped in dismay.

"..ca..ssie..?" Harper said as she came to, relieved to see the two familiar faces standing over her "ugh, that was worse then i could've imagined..." cassie smiled "i'm glad PAMA's finally out of your head." She said to her.

A loud wirring came from behind them. The restone heart was being lowered deeper into PAMA's core.

"OUCHIE: DETECTED. PRESERVATION. PROTOCOL. INITIATED."

"What's going on??" Asked cassie "you guys shorted out the processing towers! PAMA's withdrawing the redstone heart to save itself!" Harper replied "get to the redstone heart and rip it out before it's too late!!"

Jesse put on a determined face and nodded "you bet i will." He ran for PAMA's heart, jumping for it once he got close. A sudden impact to the gut sent him flying back down. "Oh shit, jesse!" Cassie said with worry. Jesse grumbled in pain as he clenched his stomach from the attack, pushing himself back up. His heart nearly stopped.

"Why did i think this would be easy.."

Lukas...

Chapter Text

"Why did i think this would be easy..." jesse groaned.

Lukas stepped away from the redstone heart, expression unwavering. Harper furrowed her brow "your friend looks..tough. are you sure you can fight him?" She asked the brunette "jesse's got this..i hope." Cassie gulped, feeling dread for the first time in a while.

"Why keep trying, jesse? You will only fail." Lukas said, a hand raising to the hilt of his blade "just as you failed to save reuben... Just as you failed to lead your friends back home... you will fail to defeat me. And axel, olivia, and everyone else on your homeworld will be made..useful." PAMA forced lukas's face to crack into a wicked grin. Which looked..so. WRONG. On someone like lukas, who was normally a kind, gentle soul who would never harm his friends.

Jesse shook his head. This wasn't lukas. Not anymore.

"Drawing it out won't hurt me... but it might hurt your friend." Lukas unsheathed his blade "you can't force me to hurt lukas!!" Jesse replied, grip on his own weapon tightening. Lukas continued to grin devilishly "good. That will make this go much faster." Lukas rushed at jesse with his blade. The brunette blocked the blow, attempting to knock the iron sword out of the blonde's grip, only for lukas to shove him down.

"You cannot win. I honestly think you should sit down and think things over." Lukas raised his blade over jesse's head. Jesse quickly rolled out from the blade and jumped to his feet, running for the redstone heart "i've gotta get to that heart!!" He ran as fast as he could "watch out!!" Cassie warned as lukas jumped. Jesse dodged the attack, lukas shattering part of the glass flooring with his fist, leaving the brunette nearly sick to his stomach at the sight of several small shards of glass sticking out of his skin, lukas not reacting to any of it.

Jesse shook his head and went for the redstone heart, his own heart pounding profusely in his chest as it went lower and lower into PAMA's system. He smashed the glass covering the heart, leaving it open and vulnerable. Immediately, jesse grabbed the heart and began pulling at it, grunting as it slowly came from its perch, only for it to slide back into place, momentarily glitching the system.

Lukas screamed, bringing his hands to his head, eyes shut tight. He opened them, his eyes back to normal for just a moment "ngh...j-jesse..?!" The blonde stared up at the other male, breathing becoming quick and frantic as tears stabbed the corners of his eyes from the amount of pain and fear he was in. Jesse couldn't utter a single word before lukas was pulled back into his own mind, PAMA regaining control "you are being silly."

"Fight it, lukas! I NEED you to help me fight PAMA!!" Jesse urged, heart aching. For the second he could see those sky blue eyes, he knew lukas was terrified. Tears still fell down his cheeks as PAMA regained control. Lukas was losing...badly.

Lukas lunged at jesse and tackled him over the edge, quickly grabbing onto the edge of the platform, jesse holding on tightly to one of his legs.

Lukas breathed heavily "j-jesse, i..c-can't stop..PAMA's too-" he groaned as he lost control again, switching hands "this has gone too far. I will destroy you both after to preserve functionality-" lukas regained his senses for just a moment longer, letting out a pained scream "GET. OUT. OF. MY. HEAD, PAMA!!!!"

"Don't worry lukas, i won't let you give up!!" Jesse climbed up the blone's body and got back to the platform, rushing to the heart. He gripped onto the sides of the heart "jesse. Please, stop..." PAMA's voice halted him in his tracks. The PAMA controlled lukas gazed up at jesse, no longer wearing that wickid grin "please. Do not deactivate me..!" PAMA begged, using the terrified tear streaked face of lukas to guilt trip jesse into not plucking out the redstone heart "i know i made some very poor decisions recently. But i CAN show you so much! I can help you get home to your friends. I can be useful..to you..."

Jesse looked down at PAMA. for just a second, he felt bad about this. But PAMA hurt so many people. It hurt his friends. It hurt lukas. There was no room for redemption.

Jesse gripped onto the redstone heart again, bracing himself "sorry, PAMA. but you're useless!" He pulled at the heart with all his might, until it finally came free.

"NNNNOOOOOOOOOooooooooo........" PAMA's voice fizzled out into nothingness.

"AAAAAAAAAGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!!" Lukas's chip short circuited after the heart was pulled free, his muscles tensing and convulsing as bolts of red electricity danced across his entire body, his eyes flashing between two colors. Red, blue, red, blue, red, blue, red..

...white.

A faint sizzling noise and the smell of burnt leather and hair came from the taller male, a thin cloud of smoke wafting from his body, until he collapsed into an unconscious heap on the ground.

"Lukas!!" Jesse pocketed the redstone heart, jumping down from the terminal, rushing to his friend. He fell to his knees infront of lukas, struggling to keep the tears at bay "lukas..." he muttered, shaking his head "..d-don't worry, i'll get you out of here..!" He scooped lukas into his arms, moving him to his back when he had to climb back up to the main floor "jesse!!" Cassie rushed to her friend "oh no..lukas..!" Petra gasped, hands covering her mouth and eyes full of shock "is he..."

Jesse carefully set lukas down onto the floor, cradeling his head with one hand and resting the other on their chest. Tears threatened to fall and yet they didn't. He was too shocked. Lukas..he couldn't be...

"C-c'mon lukas..." jesse said with a choked sob, holding one of the blonde's hands in a firm squeeze "y-you can't die right now..everyone still needs you..." he swallowed, letting a tear streak down his cheek, speaking in a hushed voice "i-i need you..."

A weak yet gentle hand whiped the tear away, stunning the brunette as he looked down "w-wow..i d-didn't know you cared..s-so much..." lukas mustered up a smile. his smile. That soft, happy grin that always brightened up jesse's day.

Jesse smiled back "l-lukas..!!" He pulled the other into a tight embrace, nuzzling into his shoulder. The others cheered and sighed with relief. Their friend was completely- er..well, mostly fine. Lukas whinced with a weak chuckle "argh..yeah..j-just really sore..!" He replied, hugging the brunette back briefly "i-i can't believe i tried to..kill you..." he frowned and shuddered at the mere thought of wanting to kill jesse, something that's only happened in his worst nightmares "i'm sorry..all i could hear was PAMA's voice telling me what to do..."

Jesse looked into the blonde's beautiful blue eyes "you have no need to be sorry, i'm just happy you're finally back..i missed you.." a faint blush went across jesse's cheeks. Lukas's did the same "yeah, i did too.." and in the back cassie and petra were grinning with that 'these bitches gay' smile cuz they 100% knew.

Jesse stood up, hoisting lukas up with him. He reached into his inventory and pulled out the still beating redstone heart, lukas squeezing the shorter male's hand out of discomfort of the low thumping noise that he learned to hate.

"It's something else, isn't it?" Harper grinned. Petra raised a brow "what's that??" She wondered "the redstone heart. It's what's been keeping PAMA alive for so long." Cassie explained "so, with it gone, rustbucket over there is just a pile of scraps." She gestured to the disabled screen of PAMA "good riddance, i hope i never have to hear that name again..." said lukas with a shiver. PAMA was gonna be one of his main nightmares for a looong time now.

"Beautiful.." ivor admired. Petra fidgeted "so uhh..is this thing gonna like..come alive and scramble our minds again..?" she asked "it's just a power source, so i think we're pretty safe." Jesse replied, tucking the heart back into his inventory "well, not really. That thing right there? It can actually help you get home." Harper smiled.

Everyone looked at her with suprise "woah, what??" "Really??" "That can actually help us get home??" Harper nodded in response "yup! Now that we have an exit portal 'nd all."

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's leave this core behind!" Said jesse, eager to get out of here "wait! The townspeople are free too, we should be there when they wake up!" Said harper. Cassie rolled her eyes "sure, i guess.." she picked up winslow, giggling as the calico licked her face.

For a moment, the sunlight was harsh on lukas's eyes, but it didn't take too long for him to adjust. He had one arm slung around jesse's shoulders to help him walk, as his body was still quite weak "it feels good being in control again, no pesky voice telling me what to do. Now i can go back to making my own decisions and saying what i wanna say." He grinned, and jesse couldn't help but grin also.

It was all back to normal again. Mobs burning in the sunlight and no longer moving in unison, probaply the only other time jesse was happy to smell rotting flesh. Harper turned to the group "just remember, you were only chipped for a little while. The rest of the townspeople, though..." she grimanced at all the unchipped civilians of crown mesa. Ivor nodded "yeah, it must be a strange feeling, to suddenly be awake and aware after such a long time of being under PAMA's thrall."

The townspeople all turned to the heroes, cheering for their triumph against the evil mind controlling machine. One of them approached jesse "hey, it's you! The guy who saved us! Who are you?" He asked "well, we aren't from here, but we're victims of PAMA too." Jesse replied "but now that PAMA's gone, we're free! All of us!"

Harper nodded "yes, these strangers have been true heroes, we couldn't have done it without them." The townspeople paused, glaring at harper "harper." Said one of them. Harper smiled anxiously "uh...hi harry..!" She waved a hand at him. Cassie blinked "i think that's the real harry. Y'know, like the one from the lab?" She whispered to jesse "yeah, and he doesn't look too happy, none of them do..." jesse shook his head.

"You didn't do this to us, did you?" Harry asked, eyes narrowed "you did!" Said another "well..i-it's complicated! You have to understand-" "everyone, back it up!!" Said cassie, standing between harper and the townsfolk "harper may have done this to you, but it wasn't her fault, it was PAMA's! You shouldn't be blaming it all on her!" The redhead crossed her arms. Harper sighed "no, cassie, it's fine..they all have the right to hate me.."

Harry scoffed "so what, we're just supposed to forgive her now??" He said "harper's stripped this place bare! How are we supposed to forgive her after that??" Asked another townsperson "whatever you guys decide to do, harper will make things right and help clean it all up." Cassie replied "i.." harper cleared her throat "er- y-yes, yes i will..! After i help these travellers find their way home, i'll come back, we'll find new resources, and we'll fix crown mesa together!" She grinned, the townsfolk cheering and waving their goodbyes.

The portal was made of a redstone frame with gold around its edges, similar to what it looked like in the hallway. The group entered one by one, leaving cassie and harper alone with one another "harper..." cassie began, the older woman looking at her "..we're gonna have to go back to the other old builders, aren't we?" The normally confident cassie rose was nervous about returning to her home realm, knowing that hadrian would have harper's head for bringing this 'freak' back.

Harper rested a reassuring hand on cassie's shoulder "i'll take any smoke hadrian throws at us. It'll be ok." She smiled. And cassie smiled too "thanks harper."

And with that, they stepped through, landing back in the hallway, where one more obstacle was in their way.

Chapter Text

Several sets of soft footsteps echo down the hallway as our heroes resume their trek. Just one last step until they get home. Jesse kept his eyes fixed on harper, skeptical. He appreciated that she helped them deffeat PAMA, though he couldn't shake this sneaking suspicion that she was still hiding something. But, if cassie trusted her, then he should too.

Lukas lagged behind the group a bit, his pace much slower then the other's. The blonde scratched at the back of his head, a look of discomfort crossing his face. Jesse couldn't help but feel as if something was off. He turned to look at his friend, eyebrows furrowed "you ok, lukas?" He asked. Lukas looked at the brunette "the chip from PAMA is still stuck, i-i can't get it out..." he replied, struggling to remove the chip, holding back a whimper.

This couldn't go untreated. The brunette ran up to the rest of the group "guys, i think we should take a break for now. Everyone seems rather exhaused after the whole PAMA thing, and i want to make sure any injuries are treated." He said, looking back at lukas.

Harper looked at the two boys with a nod "you got it." She replied, her eyes primarily trained on lukas "i'll see if i can catch us some grub, i deffinately remember one of these portals having something edible." Said petra as she kept going down the hall "just make sure it's not from that water world again, please.." cassie said with a shudder. She didn't care how delicious those fish were, that freaky leviathan monster that attacked them was the stuff of nightmares "and make sure it's high in nutrition! With how long his body's gone without eating, lukas'll really need it..!" Harper quickly added, petra giving her a dismissive wave as she stepped through a portal made of dirt blocks, dragging ivor along with her.

Jesse guided lukas over to sit down between two portals, examining the back of the taller boy's head, grimacing. Cautiously, he brought his hands up to try and pry the chip out of lukas's skull, the blonde making a pained moan.

Harper watched him do this and was quick to make him stop "woahwoah, easy there jesse. These chips were programmed to link into the host's neurological system, so yanking it out will be very dangerous." She said to him "well how are we supposed to get it out then??" Jesse asked with worry. Harper gestured for the brunette to scoot to the side a tad, so he did, making room for the woman to sit behind lukas.

Harper reached into her inventory, retrieving a couple of special tools "well, the chip should've unlodged on its own, but i guess since no water was involved it wasn't loosened," she replied "so i'm gonna have to disable the lock mechanism that keeps it in place. Which..might hurt, a lot..."

Lukas shifted uncomfortably, brow furrowed nervously. He didn't like the sound of that in the slightest.. a firm grip took ahold of his hand, jesse staring at the author with a hint of determination "easy lukas, you're ok. I know you've got this." He said to them "and if it hurts too much, squeeze my hand. It'll be ok."

Lukas took a couple moments to calm his nerves with a few deep breaths, grip on jesse's hand tightening, the blonde feeling a bit better now thanks to the shorter's words of reassurance "..ok, i'm ready..."

Jesse looked at harper, nodding at her. Harper returned the nod and got to work, using her tools to carefully remove the chip. Lukas squeezed his eyes shut, clenching his jaw hard. It hurt, so so much. The metal spikes that had burrowed themselves into his flesh were in there deep and the amount of pain coursing through his skull was unbearable.

Jesse used his thumb to draw circles into the top of lukas's hand, trying to soothe the pain, lukas giving his hand a hard squeeze "easy, lukas. Just keep holding my hand. You got this." He encouraged.

Lukas released a shaky exhale, holding back tears, holding jesse's hand in a death grip. His eyes suddenly widened with a gasp, the pain was gone. The chip clattered to the ground, blood oozing from the back of his skull. As soon as it was out, harper immediately began to clean and bandage the wound, wrapping the bandages around the blonde's head "there.." she stood up with a huff "go easy, now. An injury that traumatic is gonna need a lotta time to heal, so you should spend a lot of time resting."

"Th-thanks, harper.." lukas sighed, trying to swallow the stutter in his voice as some of the pain lingered. Jesse brought a hand up to lukas's face, whiping away a tear that fell down his cheek "you did great, lukas. You're gonna be alright now." He spoke softly, lips faintly quirked into a grin "also...can you stop squeezing my hand before it goes numb-"

"Gah, sorry..!" Lukas quickly released his grip, though the two males still continued to hold hands, jesse guiding lukas over by his side so he could rest, his grip soft and gentle, making lukas feel protected and safe.

Cassie watched this whole situation go down, winslow flinching awake when the chip fell. The redhead looked down at her feline companion and smiled, running her hand along the calico's back, winslow replying with a deep purr, twisting around to lay on his back. As cassie scratched at winslow's chest fur, her mind was elsewhere. After everything that had happened..getting freed from her own trap thanks to jesse's gratitude and everything else up to this point, she nearly forgot what she was going up against next.

The other old builders had never been nice to her. Mevia always said her white pumpkins were unnerving and gross with the only good coming out of her being axe weilding, hadrian called winslow an ugly alley cat, and otto...well, he was ok, but he wasn't any better either. The only one out of the four that was genuinely nice to her was harper. She never dared admit it, but she saw harper as a sort of adoptive mother. She taught her everything she knew about redstone, helped her with her pumpkin farm, and even sometimes took care of winslow when she was away.

A faint smile creased cassie's face at the fonder memories under the old builder's care, but it was quick to fade. She now could only focus on the day she was banished. The way harper only stood there and watched as she was dragged away by one of the gladiators, getting tossed into the portal, sent away to the dark eclipse forest.

'Mmrreewww?' Winslow mewed up at cassie, pawing at her chin. Cassie looked at the feline with a sigh "it's..it's nothing winslow, just reminiscing on some old memories..."

"You're nervous, aren't you?" Harper said, sitting down to cassie's right "i can feel ya there, i have no idea how the other old builders are gonna react to me being back, let alone you." She sighed, bringing her knees closer "..but i promise we won't be there for long, only until we get something that can get everyone home."

"I doubt hadrian'll let us have it without a fight." Cassie said, scritching behind winslow's ear "mevia too, they've always been stupidly competitive and petty." "Well, whatever the case, i'll do my best to keep you out of harm's way." Harper reassured "jesse'll find a way to get around his tricks, i'm sure of it."

Cassie looked at jesse, who had fallen asleep beside lukas, the blonde's head resting on jesse's shoulder, the brunette's head resting against it. They looked peaceful. Harper chuckled softly "that blonde kid seems awfully important to him." "I thiiink they might be a bit more then just friends." Cassie grinned mischeviously.

"Oh yeah, totally."

Petra leaned herself against the frame of a portal nearby, her and ivor having returned with a bounty of food and water "lukas has had a crush on jesse for years, but that dumb little shortstack is denser than bedrock." She explained "if i had a diamond for every time he's never caught one of lukas's hints, i'd have a full set of armor and weapons by now."

Cassie blinked in alarm "jeez, he's REALLY dense." Petra nodded "ohh yeah. He's not dumb, though. He can actually be pretty smart when he wants to be." She stood up from her spot, going over to the two boys, reaching into her inventory for something.

Lukas suddenly jolted awake as something cold and wet hit his body, shards of a glass bottle resting in his lap, body surrounded by pink particles "wakey wakey, blondie. You're lucky we found that splash potion of healing." Petra grinned with crossed arms, lukas giving his sister a roll of his eyes.

Jesse yawned and stretched with a grunt "..hey petra, you got back awfully quickly." He said to her "had to come back early when night fell, there were some creepy giant lizard things that kept following us around." The ginger explained "anyways, we've got food and a few things of water, so eat up."

Lukas downed a bottle of water within just two gulps, whiping his mouth as he caught with breath, PAMA having left him severely dehydrated. He downed another bottle, now working on satiating his appetite, ripping into a steak like a ravenous wolf. Petra merely stared as she peeled the skin off of an apple-sized fruit with her sword, nose slightly scrunched "slow down, my guy. Don't want you choking on the wrong kind of meat now." She said.

Lukas just looked at petra with confusion "the hell is that supposed to mean-" he questioned, petra looking off to the side "ohh nothingg~" she smirked, lukas, now very confused, being left alone to continue eating. Meanwhile cassie nearly choked on a piece of bread from the joke, the one time she wished she didn't have a dirty mind. She pounded her chest with her fist, sighing as she finally dislodged the piece of bread from her throat, taking a big swig of water to completely wash it down

"You alright, cassie?" Harper asked. Cassie quickly nodded "mhm! Yep! T-totally fine..!" Cassie replied hastily as the impact of the joke finally hit her, trying very hard not to laugh, thankfully getting it under control.

Jesse tossed an apple up and down with one hand, glancing at harper "sooo..harper, how is the redstone heart gonna help us find the other old builders, exactly?" He asked, taking a bite "yes, i am itching to know aswell..!" Said ivor. Harper smirked faintly "oh, you'll see soon enough. But finish eatin' first."

The group, now fueled up and ready, set back on the road. Harper leading everyone down the hall of dimensional gateways, jesse only accumulating more and more questions the longer they went. What were they looking for, exactly?

Harper suddenly stopped next to a wall "right here." She ran a hand along a block in the center, removing it "put the redstone heart in here." She looked at jesse.

Quirking an eyebrow, jesse took the still beating redstone heart from his inventory and approached, reluctantly putting it in the hole. Clicking and creaking came from nearby, a portal retracting into the ground, revealing a long stairway that led up into the darkness, the beating of the heart giving it an ominous aura.

"The old builders? The atlas? Your way home? They're all right up those stairs." Harper gestured to the stairway "woah, that is..a lot of stairs." Lukas gawked, pulling out his journal and flipping to an empty page "and all of it revealed by the redstone heart.." ivor said in amazement.

Jesse pulled the redstone heart from the hole in the wall, putting it back in his inventory. Glancing up at the stairs "alright, let's go home..!" He cheered, being the first to start the ascent "yes please..." petra sighed, tired "i can't believe we're this close..!" Said lukas, this honestly felt like a dream, having previously thought that he'd never get out of this damned hallway.

"Ah, feels like just yesterday when we first built this place." Harper sighed at the memories as she walked up the stairs ahead of jesse "still don't agree with most of the asthetic choices.."

Jesse looked around with awe in his eyes "this is so cool.. we've been exploring the old builder's world this whole time, amazing..!!" He grinned, estatic. Harper chuckled "well, we were pretty proud of it when we were putting this place together, kinda thought i'd never need to come back, to tell you the truth." She shrugged, the stairs leading up to a walkway and another set of stairs in a strange purple void, chunks of floating quartz scattered about.

"I'm sensing more story here.." petra observed "yeah, you don't sound super happy about being back, what's up?" Jesse asked "well, cassie and i have already talked about it, but the others aren't gonna be very pleased."

"'Others' ? You mean we're gonna meet MORE old builders??" Said ivor, excitement growing "other then me and harper? Yep.." cassie replied, staying to the back of the group "but i gotta warn you guys, the others are not as friendly as me or cassie. Out of all of us, we're probaply the..only nice old builders."

"Well, 'nice' is a strong word, in my opinion, but yeah." Cassie said "aaand these guys have this object that'll get us home?" Jesse inquired "yep. But uhhh..i don't think the other.. 'old builders', will give it up.." harper said, choosing her words carefully. The group stopped. Petra crossed her arms, eyes narrowed "why do i have a feeling that you're not telling us everything?"

"Harper, please don't tell me you're hiding secrets again.." cassie sighed "i'm not..!" Harper retorted "but harper, i thought that's why we brought you- to convince them to hand over the atlas and to have cassie's back. You're not gonna let us down, right?" Said jesse looking between the two. Harper stepped forwards "after seeing her again? I'd never abandon cassie, not after the first time. But i'm gonna warn you now that there could be...complications.." harper resumed walking.

"What kind of 'complications'?" Lukas asked "you'll see when you get there." Harper replied. The blonde narrowed his eyes "hey, jesse, c'mere," he gestured to the brunette, jesse getting closer so he could hear his hushed voice "how can you be sure we can trust harper? Look at all of our interactions with her so far. They haven't exactly been great, remember?" He pointed out.

Jesse silently nodded to most of lukas's points "yeah, but she did save us from PAMA. And besides, cassie seems to really want us to trust her." He replied, looking ahead to see harper whispering to cassie, presumably helping the nervous redhead calm down "i know, but i wanna be cautious, i just want to get us all home in one piece." Said lukas with a furrowed brow "and we're going to, ok? We just need to get that atlas." Said jesse.

"I appreciate the vote of confidence, jesse." Said harper at the top of the stairs "sorry, i couldn't resist a good eavesdrop..! And i promise i'm trying to help, lukas." She looked at thr blonde "yeah. Just give her a chance, guys. You gave me one." Said cassie "yeah, but that was jesse's idea, not everyone's." Petra pointed out.

Jesse looked ahead, raising an eyebrow in confusion "just..a door? Like, a regular door?" He was honestly expecting something more flashy "why don't you step through and find out?" Harper offered. Jesse cautiously grabbed onto the handles of the doors, pulling them open, immediately being met with a burst of white light "GAHH, VERY BRIGHT..!!" ivor whinced, everyone else complaining about the sudden flashbang.

"Before you go in there, i have one more piece of advice.." Said harper "don't die!!"

"Wha-" a force against his back sent jesse off balance, causing him and his group to fall through the blinding white portal and into a world where losing was punishable by death.