Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Stacy’s footsteps against the cold metal floor are almost deafening in the silence of her cell.

She was pacing back and forth, her hands folded behind her, trying to shake the tension from her shoulders. But her restless energy only made her angrier.

This wasn’t supposed to happen. None of it.

She and Stampy had come to Beacontown for peace. For comfort. To live out their lives happily, with a garden and a dog and a happy little house with a warm, cozy fireplace. And for a while, just a while, they had that. Stacy hadn’t known peace since the mansion, but she’d relearned it here. Thanks to Jesse, with his bright green eyes and a heart filled with rubies and gold.

Jesse, who’d imprisoned her here, where she’d never see trees or gardens or warm cozy fireplaces again.

She wasn’t supposed to become a criminal. But what could she do? People were hungry and no one was doing anything about it. All she’d done was give a few loaves of bread to the sick and starving. Loaves she hadn’t paid for, but who could fault her?

The baker had turned a blind eye. She’d thought Jesse, in all his kindness, would at least do the same. Because that was the person she thought he was when she’d met him in that mansion years ago. She knew it was he who had caused all this suffering, he who had closed the shelters to the poor, but Stacy was just learning how to hope. And she’d wanted to hope.

Stacy was cold as the taiga she’d hailed from, but she’d grown a soft spot for the Hero of Beacontown. She wanted to see the good in him that she’d seen in that mansion.

Not anymore.

(She hoped Winks was okay. He hadn’t been with her when she was jailed. She could only hope he’d escaped unscathed from those ghoulish crimson golems.)

As Stacy looked on, heart aching, Stampy was curled on their shared cot, his hands clasped together in reverent prayer. In the light of the flickering torch on the wall above them, the yellow feather on his earring looked like fire. He was shaking, terrified, but his lips didn’t falter as he mumbled over the words of his chant.

She’d never understood why he worshiped the bird god, as a lover of cats. Perhaps he’d met her- it wasn’t the wildest thing to think about, considering the strange world of animals where he’d been born. Stacy, however, felt nothing but gratitude towards the lesser-known deity. They’d given her meek-hearted friend hope and courage through many a dark night.

But even Sankt Sqaishey’s grace couldn’t help them now, in this cold, hard place where even the light of the sun couldn’t reach.

The moment she and Stampy had been warped into their cell with a disorienting flash of red and ink, Stacy had pounded on the walls until her fists were bruised and had screamed until her throat was scratchy and her voice was hoarse. But this cell wasn’t an ordinary cell. It was a box of solid iron, without windows or a door.

Stacy had since lost track of time. Their time here could be anywhere from a few days to a week and neither of them would be none the wiser. Food was teleported inside every now and again. It was always three loaves of bread, and a single cup of water to slake their thirst, but only just.

Bread. Was this some sort of twisted taunt from the ‘hero’?

Stacy exhaled slowly through her nose- a shaky kind of sound, as she tried to calm herself down. Resigned, she went and sat down beside Stampy on the cot.

Her friend had since fallen asleep, quivering and rolling around feverishly on their threadbare blankets. Stacy wanted to reach out to him, to wake him up. She hated seeing him like this. But she knew she’d only be returning him to the horrible realities of the waking world. And at the very least, he’d need his rest. She left him to his nightmares.

Closing her eyes, Stacy got off the cot and lay down on the hard floor, flinching at the bite of the cold metal against her skin. Doing her best to get comfortable, she curled up and tried to get some sleep.

A distant explosion shook the floor of the cell.

Stacy leaped to her feet, hand shooting to where her dagger would have been. Stampy jolted awake, gasping.

Another explosion rocked the ground under their feet. Stampy stood behind her, his eyes wide with fear. “What was that?”

“I don’t know,” Stacy growled. “Stay behind me.” He obliged, though it was a bit pointless, since none of them knew where the door was. The sound of crumbling debris and muffled yelling could be heard through the walls, and the two friends braced themselves for whatever was coming.

There was the shriek of detonated TNT, and the walls cracked in a blast of fire and heat. Stampy tackled her and they both tumbled to the ground as debris and broken chunks of iron rained down around them through the smoke.

When the smoke cleared a bit, Stacy glared up at the hole that had torn the metal of the cell asunder. Molten, liquid iron ran down the jagged edges of the new opening. Bits of brick and the remnants of metal poles could be seen poking from the ruined wall.

And standing atop the twisted metal, a stick of TNT in hand and a pickaxe in the other, was a hooded figure. The light streaming in from the outside cast them in shadow.

Shoving Stampy away, Stacy glared at the perpetrator with all the unadulterated rage of a mad dog caged, and lunged.

She had no plan. Stampy cried out to her, but she ignored him. She had no weapon but her own two hands. She aimed for the throat.

But just before she was about to grab them by the neck and crush their windpipe where they stood, the figure took off their crimson hood.

Blonde hair, long pointed ears, a set of orange goggles wrapped around his head. A nasty cut raked down the side of his cheek and cloth obscured the lower half of his face, but his bright blue eyes were unmistakable. In a kinder era, he’d helped Stacy and Stampy build their home.

“Hi, Stacy,” Lukas said, a smile audible in his voice despite the fire and the collapse all around them.

“Lukas?” Stampy muttered, squinting against the orange light that seemed so harsh compared to the torchlight they’d once had before. Shock coursed through Stacy, but she doesn’t speak, keeping her eyes fixed on him.

Lukas fiddles with the hem of the cloth mask of his hood, looking awkward. “Hey. I’m here to break you out,” he says finally, shifting the weight of the pickaxe on his shoulder. “I’m sorry I couldn’t do it sooner, but it took me a bit to map out this place and figure out where he kept you guys. But you’re free now. I can lead you out of here without him seeing.”

Stacy said nothing, still shocked. Lukas had been the one to detonate those bombs? Lukas had risked life and limb to break them out of their steel prison?

It seemed so. . . uncharacteristic for the author, a sweet and charming man who was all soft edges and starlit poetry, to do this. And yet, here he was, TNT in hand, smelling of ash and blood, the mark of a blade on his face.

Lukas seems to notice her surprise, for he gives her an apologetic smile before putting the stick of TNT back into his inventory. “Sorry about the mess,” he says, inclining his head slightly. “Not my preferred method of a prison breakout. But what with the mining fatigue, and the guards, I had to get to you quickly before their sedatives wore off.”

He shakes his head, turning around to survey the intense damage he’d done to the cell. “Ugh. I hate using TNT for anything. I’m more of a, covert operation kind of guy.”

“And I’m not usually one to try and kill the first person who walks into my cell,” Stacy says, finding her voice again somehow. For the first time in Aether knows how long, she didn’t feel impending dread breathing down her neck. “But times like these do change one’s mindset.”

The blonde’s eyes sparkle. “I suppose they do.”

Stampy clears his throat loudly, and both of them swing around to look at him. He has a grin on his face, the first one she’d seen in a long long time. But his eyes were paranoid. “This is wonderful and all, and I’m more grateful than you know, Lukas, but can we please get out of here?”

Stacy gives him a small smile. Lukas places a hand on her shoulder. “There is so much to tell you, and much more for you to ask, I’m sure, but Stampy’s right. We can’t stay here for long. Those sedatives were enough for about ten minutes, and it’s already been eight.” He glances over his shoulder at the orange wash of the darkening sky, eyes wary. “I don’t want - want him to find us.”

Stacy nods. “Let’s go, then.”

Lukas hauls them both over the ruined walls and into the open air. At last, Stacy can see trees and grass again- but there was no time to revel in her freedom. She grasps Stampy’s hand tightly as they break into a run, leaping over fallen poles and chunks of metal and cement as they leave the destroyed remnants of Jesse’s prison.

“What about the other prisoners?” Stampy murmurs to Lukas as he takes a final look at the prison as it disappears behind them. Stacy scoffs, without any heat. Of course Stampy would be worrying more about the others than himself, even as they were escaping that horrible place. He’d always been a more compassionate soul than she.

“Oh, I freed them all,” Lukas reassured him. “You two were the last of the inmates I’ve freed. They’re waiting for us at a treehouse in the woods.”

Lukas leads them deep into the forests outside of Beacontown, his pace brisk as he runs. Stacy is soon somewhat winded, but Stampy doesn’t even break a sweat. His face, for the first time since they’d been imprisoned, looked serene. Even happy.

Stacy can relate. The two share a look, twin smiles on their faces. Freedom was sweet, sweeter still after a long time cooped up like birds in a cage.

She watches as Lukas slows, his eyes watchful, as if he’s searching for something.

There’s a melancholy in him that wasn’t there before. Though he still spoke and acted with the same quiet confidence he’d wielded before, there was a sorrow in his step. Somewhere, close enough to the surface for her to sense, Lukas was sad. Like he’d lost someone valuable.

“The treehouse is up ahead,” Lukas called behind him, jolting her out of her thoughts. “Follow me.”

He leads them to a particularly tall tree with a ladder scaling its trunk and into the thick cover of leaves above. “Climb up. Everyone’s waiting for you there.”

“Oooh, cool! A treehouse,” Stampy exclaims. Before he climbs up, he turns to Lukas. “Thank you so, so much for freeing Stacy and me. I really thought I’d die there, but my prayers were answered tonight!”

“It’s no problem,” Lukas replied, a spot of pink coloring his face at Stampy’s praise. Stacy’s friend gives him a look of gratitude, before making his way up the ladder and into the house above. Stacy is quick to follow.

The treehouse above was a humble thing: a small room with a few pieces of furniture and several windows all around, with a ladder leading up to the roof. It might’ve been cozy if it weren’t for the fact that it was dusty and in complete disarray- cobwebs in the corners, ripped posters, and a rug so tattered and old it looked more gray than white.

To Stacy’s surprise, about two dozen or so people were in the room already, milling about. With a start, Stacy realized she recognized some of them.

They were the others who’d been imprisoned before her- the owner of Beacontown’s casino, a man who’d sprayed graffiti all over the tower Jesse erected at the heart of the town, that odd blonde woman who acted like a child, and yet had a body twisted with too many scars. And many more she didn’t know, and others who hadn’t been imprisoned.

Beacontowners, in all their diversity, were all gathered in this little treehouse, waiting for something.

When Lukas entered the room, they all turned toward him, expectant.

He looked startled to see so many eyes on him, but he didn’t shy away. Pulling a stick from his inventory, he uses a flint and steel to light it, turning it into a torch. Walking over to a table dusty from years of disuse, he placed the torch down and turned to face them all.

“You all know I’m the one that freed you,” he begins, “And you all know who I am, I trust. I am Lukas, a storyteller and a familiar face to many of you already. You must have seen me in the years past, walking beside heroes when I still wielded a bow instead of a pen.”

“Some heroes,” the woman with the scars - Nell, Stacy remembered - scoffed, taking a puff of her cigarette. Stacy gave her a look of surprise. It was jarring to hear the usually jovial woman speak in a voice so bitter. “You people worshiped them the way the Builders made us worship Tim. And look what happened! Jesse’s become a nasty piece of work, and his golems are like the poh-poh with how they grab you and drag you through hell and back! How do we know you’re not the same, Lu?”

Murmurs of agreement spread through the crowd. Now, some of them were glaring at Lukas, in both fear and anger- as if he too were going to spirit them away to yet another cell.

Lukas looks unbothered, running his cool gaze over the crowd with an almost seraphic calm. He does not falter in the face of their growing hostility towards him.

“Do you know why I brought you here, of all places?” he finally asks.

He is greeted with silence. Stacy raises a brow, puzzled. She’d thought that this was his home, and aside from how musty the place was, she hadn’t questioned it.

“I brought you here,” Lukas says, his impassive gaze hardening into something sharper and colder, “because this is where Jesse had lived, before the Witherstorm and the portals and the enchanted swords, almost a lifetime ago. I brought you here because I want you to know that there was a time before now. Before all the culmination of events spiraled into today. Before he was, at some point, a hero.

“And before any of you protest my words, I will tell you that yes, Jesse was a hero. He was good and kind, generous and courageous. There was nowhere he feared to tread, and no one he refused to help. He was a hero. And he was a good friend. He was my friend.”

Lukas climbs onto the table to stand before them all, and in the glow of the firelight, he looks almost like a tragic figure from an old tale. A king missing his regalia, begging his soldiers to fight one last fight. His expression is hard to read. “And I knew my friend, or at least I thought I did. The Jesse I knew wouldn’t do this. Wouldn’t starve the common folk, wouldn’t be cruel or coldhearted. No, the Jesse I knew is gone. Power corrupts. But I didn’t bring you here to tell you what you already knew. I brought you here so we can do something about it.”

The people stirred, and Stacy could see them glancing at each other, fear and hope mingling together on their faces. Beside her, Stampy was looking up at Lukas, eyes shining. There is something reverent in his face.

“I brought you all here because I know what you’re all capable of. I’ve seen what you can do, and how much you want to fight him. Prisoners, you think Jesse put you in those cells for no reason? No, he put you there to stomp out the fire inside of all of you. The fire that, if we work together, we can use to stop him. To save everyone we love from a tyrant. We will become the New Ocelots - bold, brave, and fierce, and striking where the mark isn’t looking. We will fight, and we will never give up, no matter how long it takes! Together, we will take him down!” Lukas grabs the torch and raises it into the air. There’s a smile on his face, full of fierce determination.

“Are you with me?”

The crowd roared. Their cheers could be heard throughout the forest.

Stacy studies Lukas, a smile slowly spreading on her face. He stares down back at them, gaze fierce and approving. In the firelight, she can see the glint of his fangs as he speaks. “Let’s get to work, then. Welcome to the New Ocelots.”

-

She finds him standing atop the roof, hands on the railing, gazing out over the starlit forest. His back is to her.

“Peaceful night, isn’t it?” he says, turning around to face her.

“Not even remotely,” Stacy muttered, a growl in her voice. “Not until that cur who calls himself a mayor and a hero is gone.”

Lukas dips his head. “I suppose you’re right. Still, the forest is so still. Everything is quiet. You can almost forget your troubles for a bit.”

Stacy doesn’t answer. Instead, she knelt down before him. Lukas blinks at her, uncomprehending. She lowers her head.

“You saved me,” she says, solemn. A knight bowing to a royal. “I am indebted to you.”

Lukas is quiet for a moment, before he smiles, a little shyly. “Don’t do that,” he says shortly. “You’re not indebted to me. Save your loyalty for the New Ocelots and our cause. We’re going to need your flavor of camaraderie to fight him.”

There it was again. That sorrow, that seemed to haunt him so. But now, Stacy thought she had a vague idea of who it could be for.

“What was. . . who was Jesse to you, Lukas?” she questioned carefully, not wanting to overstep.

Lukas looks at her for a long minute. A tidal wave of emotions is flashing through those bright blue eyes of his - and perhaps it is simply the glow of the lanterns down below in the treehouse room, but she thinks she sees the gleam of new tears beginning to bud.

And just as surely as she’d seen it, he’d steeled his expression over again, returning to that quiet mask of unending calm he always wore.

“Jesse was my dearest friend,” he admitted. There’s an edge in his voice. “But those days are over. He has become someone else, someone ruthless and cold and unafraid to cut down whoever stands in his way. I can’t stand beside someone like that. I’m going to fight him until he’s gone, or I’m dead and broken in the midst of trying. I won’t let him keep doing this to Beacontown.”

His taloned fingers are gripping the rails so tightly that his knuckles are turning white. He has turned his face away from her, eyes lifted to the stars. The moon has risen above them, pale and silver, unforgiving.

“Would you kill him?” Stacy asks.

Silence has settled over the forest, save for the chatter and laughter of the other rebellion members below.

“Yes,” Lukas answers.

And because Stacy had grown up amongst the wolves of the taigas, she could smell his lie just as surely as her lupine friends did. But she says nothing of the sort. She doesn’t need to.

“Sure,” she finally says, turning away to go back down into the treehouse and rejoin Stampy and the others. “Keep telling yourself that.”

She leaves Lukas alone with the stars and a lie that fooled no one but himself.

Chapter Text

Axel and Olivia arrived in Beacontown for a visit at the start of a new moon.

Immediately, Olivia could tell something was wrong.

The people of Beacontown, who had once greeted them so happily, barely spared them a glance. There were no flowery banks, no scent of butter and frying food in the air. No laughter and happy chatter. In fact, there was nothing at all.

The streets of Beacontown were as empty as a graveyard.

Olivia glanced at Axel, who caught her gaze immediately. His face was dark, and she could see her own feelings mirrored in his gaze. What had happened to the liveliness of Beacontown? The joy that seemed to never leave the citizens, even in the hardest times, was suddenly gone, replaced with garish red banners and flickering shadows.

(Red was never Jesse’s favorite color - blue was. Where was her friend? Was he okay? She knew that he, of all people, would never stand for such drafty shadows to linger.)

There was a movement in the darkness of the alleyway they were passing by. With a start of horror, Olivia realized that it was two small, dirty children, shivering even in the midst of summertime. 

Poverty left untended, in Jesse’s city? Something wasn’t right. Something was definitely not right.

Olivia broke away from her and Axel’s entourage, briskly hurrying over to the children’s side. They looked up at her in barely concealed fear, their eyes white and shining as dinner plates. When she looked closer, she saw that one of them was ghostly pale, nearly dead with some untreated illness. His breath smelled of day-old eggs. 

Her stomach rolling, Olivia gives him a panicked glance before reaching into her inventory. “Oh, you poor things, here -”

She holds out several breakfast burritos she and Axel had been saving since that morning. She feels a warm, strong hand on her shoulder, and when she looks up, she sees that Axel has come up to stand beside her. He held out two water bottles to the quivering children.

The healthier of the two children (which was a bit of a stretch to say, as both were clearly malnourished and pale with hunger) gave them a suspicious look through big brown eyes, before suddenly darting forward and grabbing the food and water. 

And then, before the child could bring the water to his parched, cracked lips, both of them disappeared in a flash of red light.

Olivia stumbled back at the sudden brightness, covering her face with her hand as she flinched. When she’d blinked the spots from her eyes, she stared bewildered at the empty space where the children used to be.

Axel’s mouth hung open. “How - wha -”

“Good evening, Axel. Olivia.”

The pair spun around, and saw Jesse standing before them, the fading sunlight casting his body in eerie shadows. His hand was outstretched, and he slowly lowered it back to his side. He smiled faintly at them. “I trust that you arrived here without much trouble?”

“J-Jesse!” Olivia stammered, starting forward to greet her friend. However, something stopped her before she could take another step. “It’s… good to see you, Jes. Yeah, we had a peaceful trip. We came as soon as we got your letter.”

“My… letter?” Jesse’s face flickered, vague confusion visible in his eyes. But it is gone as soon as it comes, and he smiles. “Oh! Yes, my letter. I’m happy to hear that. You know I love keeping in touch with my friends!”

The way he says the word friends sends a shiver down her spine. Beside her, Axel tenses.

“Er - yeah! We love hearin’ from ya too, Jes. It feels like it’s been forever since the three of us have been in one place,” Axel says, forcing a smile. Olivia tried to crack one of her own, but her lips were shaking. Not right. Not right. Jesse’s own smile widens with every word.

(When Jesse smiles, it’s wide and messy - like everything else about him. It’s tusks and teeth and it is blinding to look at. Not this tight-lipped grin slowly spreading across her friend’s cold face.)

He takes another step towards them, and it is all Olivia can do to not back away. He begins saying something about how busy he’s been, and how happy he was to finally have their company, but she can barely hear him over the blood pounding in her ears.

Why is she so scared? She’s never been scared of Jesse before, even in his spiked armor and with blood on his sword. But she’s never felt more terrified than right there, in the alley, the shadow of her friend casting over her like some strange effigy.

“Right!” Jesse says, clapping his hands together abruptly and startling Olivia out of her daze. With a jolt, she realizes that the three of them are no longer in an alleyway; rather, they were standing in the lobby of the most luxurious hotel in Beacontown. Axel stumbles backward, looking dumbstruck. “Jesse, you… how the fuck did you do that?”

Before any of them could say anything, a young man scurried up to them. He was smiling, but his eyes were wide and teary. A bead of sweat dripped down his face.

“H-Hello… Is there… Anything I can do for you?” he asks, voice squeaking at the last syllables.

Olivia opened her mouth to politely decline, but before she could, Jesse snapped, “you could get out of my sight before I set fire to your home.”

The young man flinches, but nods hurriedly and scuttles away into the shadows.

Jesse turns to them. “I got new powers!” he exclaims, grinning - and completely brushing over the fact that he had just threatened to destroy a stranger’s house. “Admin’s perks - I can fly, I can teleport, and I can summon cool things now too! Isn’t that awesome?”

Axel’s eyes widen. “Woah, woah, wait - Admin? What the hell is an Admin? Some sorta weapon you neglected to tell us about? And also, why did you neglect to tell us that you can fucking fly? ”

“It’s a weapon of a sort,” Jesse giggles. Then his eyes soften - or rather, they don’t have that glint in them that sent a spike of unease down Olivia’s throat anymore. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. I wanted to surprise you guys, y’know? I thought you’d be excited…”

He pouts. Immediately, Olivia goes to his side to comfort him. “We are excited, Jes. It’s just…”

Axel finishes her sentence, his voice flat. “This doesn’t feel natural.”

Jesse smiles, and it’s still wrong - lopsided, and with too much lip and too little teeth. “It’s not natural, Axel. It’s supernatural!” He floats into the air, doing a little flip before landing softly at their side again. “It’s magic, it’s power, and it’s absolutely perfect .”

Axel grins. He’d look absolutely normal if it weren’t for the fact that Olivia knows him much too well; she can see the uneasiness in the taut clench of his jaw and the tenseness of his broad shoulders. “It is pretty awesome.”

Jesse brightens. “I knew you’d think so!”

Olivia can’t shake the prickling from her spine, so she begins walking aimlessly around the lobby while Axel and Jesse chat about his new powers, trying to clear her mind. Red carpet, red banners, gaudy scarlet chandeliers. She loves red, but the hotel has overdone it. The staff is nowhere in sight.

She’s busy staring up at an odd, crimson-colored plant when she feels a hand on her shoulder. Jesse is beaming at her, eyes eager. “Do you like it?”

She manages to free her tongue for just a moment to answer, “Like what?”

Jesse steps back and spreads his arms out, hovering slightly in the air as he gestures around the lobby. “This hotel. It was wonderful before, but the change of decor makes it really pop, don’tcha think?”

That startles her, and she looks at him skeptically. “You changed everything into… overbright red?”

“Yeah!” He nods enthusiastically. “Red is such a lovely color.”

They don’t speak for a few minutes, as Jesse runs his hand lovingly over the wispy leaves of the plant.

“I remember you told me,” Olivia murmurs under her breath, “that blue was your favorite color.”

He winks at her. “Not anymore.”

The doors of the hotel slam open, and three civilians in armor rush inside. Jesse whips around to face them as they push past Axel and hurry over to him.

“We’re sorry, sir,” one of them says breathlessly, “but there’s been a commotion at the treasure hall. Someone’s rigged TNT in there, and some of the support pillars collapsed. No one’s been able to get inside. And,” he pauses, taking a deep breath to steady himself, “in the explosion, they mass-distributed hundreds of posters against you. Papers were fluttering everywhere. Here’s one.”

Jesse, who’d been bored at first, suddenly looked downright murderous. He snatched the slightly-charred paper from the man, holding it up to his face as he scanned the contents. 

“How dare they ,” he snarled, lowering it from his face. 

Olivia could’ve sworn that his eyes turned red.

Before she could question what, exactly, was going on, he turned to her with a reassuring smile. “I have something to go deal with right now - how ‘bout you and Axel make yourselves at home? I’ll take care of the room for you.”

Olivia raises her hand to protest. “Oh, no, it’s -” But Jesse paid her no mind. He went over to the registration counter and snatched some keys off the wall, tossing them over his shoulder. Olivia fumbles to catch them as he strides past her and Axel to the exit.

Axel’s brow furrows. “Huh. Why’re people rebelling against you? What’d you do?”

Jesse stops and stiffens. Slowly he turns his head to look back at them, and his face is wrong, so wrong. His smile is a baring of his teeth. 

“Careful, Axel. Asking too many questions gets pretty annoying real fast. Now, I have somewhere to be. Enjoy your stay.”

Then he snaps his fingers, and Axel and Olivia are teleported into a room of white sheets and velvet.

The two of them are frozen, unable to move. Unable to breathe. The spell breaks when Axel finally sags, flopping backwards onto the bed and closing his eyes. “I’m so fucking confused right now.”

Olivia wants to laugh, but the sound gets stuck in her throat. Instead, she says, “he’s changed.”

Axel opens one eye to look at her. “Way to state the obvious. Whatever that Admin thing is, it doesn’t feel… right, does it? It has some baaaad vibes.”

Olivia nods, sitting down on the bed beside him. Axel radiates warmth, and she is grateful for it. “And it’s not just that. The way he spoke to the poor employee. The way he speaks and acts. Those children in the alley - he sent them away, I’m sure of it. Something’s wrong, very very wrong.”

Axel hums in agreement. He doesn’t say much after that, but Olivia can tell he’s just as anxious as her. Jesse has been their friend since childhood, since they found him wandering the woods after the disappearances of his mother and father. They knew him inside out. They didn’t know him to be cruel.

But cruel he was. And it sent shivers down her spine.

-

She sits there on the bed for a long time, staring into space, trying to calculate what, exactly, went wrong. She pulls up her machine, the one that contains every book and research article in the world, and researches the Admin.

All she finds are scraps of old legends, myths, Villager superstitions. Nothing but religious texts and paintings of a man in red and chrome. 

She wants to dismiss them, but something in the back of her mind tells her not to. After all, she’d seen many things in the past, and she wouldn’t put it past her friend to fiddle with something supernatural. If he’d played with the powers of the so-called Admin, and somehow been corrupted by them…

(How much of her friend was untainted? And how much of it had always been? She shoves the thought out of her mind, replacing it with the image of his bright, toothy smile. She refuses to follow that dark path of thinking. Refuses to let herself believe it.)

She switches off her machine with a sigh, and places it on the bedside table. There would be more time for speculation in the morning.

The sky had turned dark, and Axel snored at her side, his chest rising up and down in soothing rhythm. She smiles tiredly, scooting her body so that she was curled up beside him. Almost instinctively, he rolls over to face her, a huge arm coming to drape over her torso. Their legs tangle together. After the events of the day, Olivia’s heart swelled with emotion. She’d missed this idiot in the months they were apart.

In the warmth of Axel’s embrace, Olivia dozes.

-

A rapping sound echoes through their room, loud and insistent. Olivia’s eyes flew open. Gently pushing Axel’s arm off of her, she sits up and reaches over to switch on the redstone lamp at their bedside. Light fills the room, and she looks around.

Nothing.

The tapping starts again. It sounds like it’s coming from the balcony door, and her heart skips a beat. The paranoia of yesterday washes over her once again. An attacker? A messenger? Jesse himself?

Then the balcony door clicks open and the curtains are pushed aside with a swish, and in stepped a very familiar face.

It’s Lukas. He’s disheveled, there’s a jagged scar on his face, and he’s wearing a long black cloak that looks like a clothen piece of the night, but she recognizes him just fine.

He leaps at her and raises a finger to her lips before she can speak. “ Shh . I don’t know who might be listening.” He glances behind him, at the open balcony door. “I don’t think anyone saw me climb up here, but you never know.”

She’s frozen for a moment before she wraps her arms around him and hugs him tight, unable to stop her quiet laughter. She’s feeling both relief at it not being an attacker, and joy at seeing him again. “Lukas! I missed you.”

After a moment, he returns her hug, squeezing her tightly. “I missed you too, Liv. It’s good to see you.”

From the bed, Axel stirs, sitting up and rubbing his eyes as he yawns. Then he stops mid-stretch, staring open mouthed at Lukas. “What the…”

Lukas waves awkwardly at him. “Hey, Axel.”

Axel breaks into a wide smile, brows raising. “Well, whaddaya know. The catboy! Hi, Lukas.” He leaps out of bed and goes over to envelop him in that brotherly, one-armed hug he always gives him. Lukas snorts, but allows Axel to hook his arm over his shoulder and pull him close.

All of them are still smiling when they break apart. Olivia turns to Lukas with a serious expression. “It’s good to see you too, Lu. But why’re you here? And why through the balcony?”

Lukas glances furtively over his shoulder at the open door again, before turning back. There’s a wary look in his eye that wasn’t there when he was being hugged. “Maybe we should talk more after you turn the lights off. I don’t want anyone to know I’m here.”

Axel squints at him. “Why not?”

Lukas waves him off. “I’ll explain in a sec. Just… turn off the lights and close the door first.”

Axel huffs, but does as he’s told, switching off the redstone lamp and filling the room once more with darkness. Olivia goes over to the balcony door and swings it shut, pulling the curtains back over it. She turns to Lukas. “Satisfied?”

He nods. “That should do it. Let’s sit down for this. There’s…” He breathes slowly through his nose. “There’s a lot to talk about.”

He goes over to the edge of the bed and sits down. Axel and Olivia settle beside him. She sees him wring his hands, take a deep breath, before speaking. “Well… you guys already met Jesse yesterday, didn’t you?”

“Yeah.” Olivia replies, swallowing back her residue anxiety from yesterday’s events. “We saw his new powers and everything. I… wasn’t sure what to think.”

“It was weird, ” Axel agrees. “Everytime he used them, it just felt like something was wrong.”

Lukas’s eyes narrow. “Is that all you noticed? No strange, cruel behavior?”

Neither of them say anything, an admission in itself. 

A beat of silence passes. Lukas sighs, and in the dim light, she sees his ears droop. “These past few days have been bad, guys. People have starved, gotten sick, and there are no hospitals still around to take them in. Everyone is scared and suffering.” His face hardens. “I don’t think I need to tell you that Jesse is the cause of it.”

Olivia clenches her fists in her lap, trying to block out the rush of pain and disbelief she feels when she hears what she’s hated to learn restated. She hears Axel’s sharp inhale.

“Ever since he got back from the Admin’s Icy Palace, he’s changed for the worse,” Lukas goes on. She can’t hear any particular emotion in his voice as he speaks, and wonders what he’s thinking. “He’s imprisoned innocents, closed down hospitals in favor of building statues of himself. He’s built that horrible tower in the middle of the town for himself to live in. And he’s done much, much more.”

“ Fucking hell ,” Axel snarls, cutting him off. His breathing is heavy, and Olivia can see that he’s shaking. “That little shit! I can’t believe he’d ever-”

He doesn’t finish his sentence. Instead, he turns his head away towards the wall, jaw clenched tightly. Olivia reaches behind Lukas’s back to place her hand on his shoulder. He doesn’t respond.

Lukas doesn’t speak for a while. Then he says, so quietly she strains her ears to hear him, “When he came back, I was so excited. I ran up to him and greeted him, and asked him where the others were. And then he whipped around and gave me this. ”

He points to the scar on his face, a jagged thing that trailed up his cheek and over his nosebridge. His voice is neutral, but his eyes are blazing with rage and hurt. “He didn’t do it with a sword, either. Motherfucker summoned a blade and shot it at me with his powers. Called it a warning shot. And he told me that I was worthless, that I was useless to him now that he had these powers, and that if I ever approached him again he’d treat me like the roach I was.”

Olivia can’t speak, all the words she wants to say caught in her throat like netted fish. Jesse said that? To Lukas? To one of their own?

(Out of all of them, she knew, Jesse loved Lukas the most. She’d smiled knowingly at them one too many times at their irregular reunions, at how Jesse smiled at him, and how Lukas would return it tenfold. It was one of the simple truths of their little group of family - Petra loved shiny things, Axel’s eyes shimmered coffee brown in the sunlight, and Jesse and Lukas were completely, irrevocably in love.)

Olivia is not a violent person. But for Lukas, no, for her brother’s sake - she’d really love to clobber Jesse over the head with her research machine.

She finds her voice at last. “Isn’t anyone doing anything to stop him? Beacontown isn’t weak. Surely they’d fight him.”

Lukas looks at her, his eyes gleaming with determination. “We are. That’s actually why I’m here. To ask you to join the New Ocelots in our quest for rebellion.”

Immediately, Axel whips around to face him again. “I’m listening.”

Lukas gives him a lopsided smile, but continues speaking. “We’re a secret group of citizens working together to take down Jesse. I started the rebellion after I freed people from the prisons and rallied them. It’s difficult to properly coordinate everyone, and we’ve lost a couple people - but we’re doing it. We’re spreading the word.”

Olivia’s eyes widened. “Are you the one who blew up the Treasure Hall?”

Lukas shakes his head, but his smile returns. “No, not me. That was Stacy and Nell, two of my most reliable members. We’ve been planning that attack for days.” He looks down at his lap. “I hope they’re okay. I haven’t seen them since yesterday morning.”

Axel places a hand on Lukas’s shoulder. The two lock eyes, and Axel’s voice is steady. There’s no hesitation when he says, “I’m in.”

They both look at Olivia, expectant.

Olivia knows how important this is to Lukas and Axel. She knows that what they’re doing is good. And she desperately, desperately wants to join them.

But Olivia isn’t just a fierce-spirited girl anymore. She’s a woman running a whole city full of people. And if Jesse’s powers reached as far as she suspected they did, who knows what he’ll do to her people in retaliation for her betrayal?

She steels herself and shakes her head. “No. No, I can’t.”

Lukas’s eyes narrow in barely controlled anger. Axel leaps to his feet, glaring at her. “ What? Why the hell not? You’ve seen what he’s done to his own town!”

“Exactly,” she hisses back. “And what’ll he do to our own towns when he sees we’ve run off with Lukas to fight him? You have Boomtown to think about as well, Axel. We’re mayors and kings, with much more to think about than before!”

Axel says nothing, but his face is stormy as he glowers at her. Unable to hold his gaze for long, she turns to Lukas, who watches all this with a stony expression. “I don’t know why he’s stuck with us and not you, Lu, but I’m scared for what he’ll do to Redstonia if I leave.” She bites her lip, feeling torn. “I’m sorry. I can’t join you.”

Axel crosses his arms, chewing on his inner cheek so hard she’s afraid he’ll bleed. His exhale is loud and angry. “I hate that you’re making sense right now. I don’t like you very much, Liv.” She can tell from his voice that he doesn’t mean it. Relief surges through her, easing some of her conflicted thoughts.

“Actually,” Lukas says, voice thoughtful, “I have an idea. You don’t have to fully run away with us. But what if you were an informant? We can’t keep tabs on everything Jesse does, as much as I’d like to. You can help tell us his next move, and warn us if he’s on the attack.”

It makes sense. Already, she can see Axel perking up at the suggestion. Cautiously, but with budding hope in her voice, she asks, “How would we, hypothetically, relay information to you? Communicator?”

Lukas shakes his head quickly at that. “No communicators. His powers allow him to telepathically intercept communication lines. You’d have to report it to us verbally by reporting to one of our five stationed messengers.” He pauses. “The closest one is near Stacy and Stampy’s old house, actually.”

It’s risky. It’s dangerous. And if they get caught, it’s all over.

But this is the only chance she can truly help the townspeople without putting her own in too much danger. And Olivia would be damned if she didn’t do it.

“I’m in,” she says.

“Me too,” Axel says. He takes her hand and she smiles, squeezing back.

Lukas nods in approval. “Alright, here’s my card with all our locations written on it. Either memorize it or take a photo - make sure to burn it afterwards.” His smile isn’t as bright as it was in better days, but it makes Olivia happy just to see it. “Thank you guys so much. This is the first real good news I’ve had ever since Jesse returned.”

He walks to the balcony door and swishes the curtains aside, stepping into the cool night air. As he prepares to jump over the side and freefall to the ground, as they’d seen him done time and time again before, Olivia called out to him. “Wait.”

He turns around. “Yes?”

Olivia hesitates, unsure what to say. “I’m sorry. For everything that’s happened while we were away. We should’ve come sooner and helped you deal with more of the fallout.”

It’s a few seconds before Lukas finally laughs. The sound is bitter, devoid of all humor. 

“No need to apologize, Liv.” From across the room, their eyes meet. His gaze is shattered, broken, brilliantly blue. The same eyes of a widow in mourning. “It’s his fault this is all happening, not yours. I intend to make him pay for it.”

He hooks his legs over the side of the balcony and disappears into the night.

Chapter Text

Nell, even as a child back in a universe she’d long forgotten, had always been fascinated by fire.

She could barely remember her parents’ faces, let alone their names. But out of her few, cotton-fuzzy memories, she remembered his mother’s blonde hair lit by an orange glow as she laughed beside a flickering fire.

After the day she joined the games (she, like so many of the others, can’t remember how or why she did), her memories grew dimmer with every death she experienced. Death, even in a world where dying was only slightly consequential compared to the alternative, still took something from you. She’d learned this over and over from the scars twisting her body, and the loss of her ability to recall what her mother looked like.

But the memory of her mother’s blonde hair and the deepening orange of the flickering flames stayed alive. Maybe that was the reason why she’d watch with fascination when, throughout the Games, the gladiators threw their TNT and fire charges at her. Maybe that was the reason her heart always sang with a thrum of excitement whenever she raced through the lava. 

And maybe that was why, when Lukas - bless his soul - started a rebellion against Jesse and asked for volunteers to blow the Treasure Hall to smithereens, Nell had been the first to raise his hand.

Now, explosions rocked the world, glorious blasts of fiery destruction toppling the marble columns holding it upright. As Nell watched her magic do its work from his hiding space in a tree a little ways away, his heart swelled with pride. He’d done his job more than well.

Perched beside him, the brunette woman - Stacy Plays, he recalled - let out a soft sigh. “Glad that’s over. We should get out of here asap.”

Nell nodded, grinning from ear to ear under his cloth mask. “Yeah! Lu’ll be so happy to hear we didn’t get our asses captured. But did you SEE that, dude? That place blew sky-high!”

While the two of them had both been assigned to this mission, it was Nell who’d done the explosives work. As Stacy watched from afar and kept a lookout, Nell had scoped the place out, rigged it with TNT, tossed a match, and then ran out of the Hall as fast as his legs could carry him. Then he watched the fireworks.

Stacy nods, a smile of her own beginning to form. “I saw it,” she murmurs - unlike Nell, she’s paying attention to the volume of her voice. “But we can celebrate later once we get back to the base. Let’s go.”

With that, she hops out of the tree, Nell right on her heels, ready to escape through the city and into the woods.

They’d just reached the end of the Treasure Hall courtyard, ready to race through the tangle of alleyways and disappear once more, when someone called out, “Hey! Stop right there!”

Nell is about to look around to see who it was, but Stacy growls, “Don’t turn around. Get ready.”

Nell understood, nodding. But they turn anyway, looking to see who’d spoken.

Eight Town-Guards were striding toward them, weapons in hand. The one in the lead had a megaphone and was speaking loudly into it.

“Stay where you are, civilians. We have alerted Jesse to your presence, and he will be arriving shortly. You will not be harmed if you obey us. Stay where you are.”

Stacy snarled. “Yeah, like hell we will. Your fox-heart of a mayor would just as soon hurt one of you for not catching us as he’ll hurt us if you do.”

“Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law, civilian. Stay where you are.” There’s a touch of irritation in the Guard’s voice that sends a smirk across Nell’s face. The group of guards moves closer, then closer, then closer some more. At Nell’s side, Stacy tenses, her hand hovering at her side in anticipation.

One of the guards surges forward - a young man, impatient to prove himself - and Stacy strikes. 

Nell sees it all in a splinter of a second - the pull of potions from an inventory, their contents glimmering in the light of the dying sun, and the flash of their flight as Stacy throws them, with all her might, at the guards.

The glass shatters in a spray of sound and particles. The guards scream. And Stacy yells, “ Run! ”

The two hurtled away, into the streets of Beacontown.

-

When they finally come to a stop, they’re hidden behind some scraggly rose bushes growing in a dark crowd of buildings right on the edge of Beacontown. Jesse’s new obsession with red had caused most of the flowers growing around the town to be removed, except for poppies and roses. Nell had thought it stupid - she loved sunflowers - but now, she was grateful for the cover of the roses.

She and Stacy lay panting against the wall behind the bushes, recovering from their panicked running spree. Nell’s hair was mussed up, her face-cloth slightly askew. The adrenaline that had lifted her legs like a storm wind was fading, leaving her tired to the bone. 

Still, she couldn’t help but smile. The last time she’d felt this kind of thrill was during her time in the Games. After losing her immortality, she thought she’d never again feel so alive.

His grin widens. I’ve still got it!

Beside him, Stacy sits against the wall, closing her eyes wearily as her chest rose and fell. She smells of soot and foreign chemicals, with a hint of honeysuckle shining through. There’s sweat beading on her cheek and over her lip. Her mud-brown hair hangs loosely around her head, wild and tousled from their flight from the Treasure Hall. She is, in every sense of the word, a total mess.

Gorgeous, Nell’s mind supplies. They promptly swat the thought away. They love finding the beauty in the unexpected, sure, but that is not what they want to think about right now. 

Turning fully to face their companion, Nell asked, “So what was in those potions anyway, dude? Those effects were fuckin’ wicked.”

Without opening her eyes, Stacy replies, “Potions of Weakness, Poison and Slowness. Mostly it just contained monster parts and other potions. I had to kill a lot of spiders to make them, but they were worth the trouble.”

Nell’s jaw drops, and his eyes widen in awe. Stacy could not get any cooler, could she? “Woah, that’s awesome! Like, that’s actually the coolest thing. So you just mix up a buncha monster bits and get a sweet drink out of it?” At Stacy’s slight nod, they grin. “Damn. That’s badass . What a world we live in, amiright?”

Stacy cracks one eye open to give them a wry smile. “It’s certainly a world, yeah.”

Nell cackles a little too loudly at that, only slightly lowering their voice when Stacy shushes them. “Right! Righteous.” Then they cock their head. “Say, who taught you how to brew? It doesn’t seem like something you pick up on your own.”

Stacy’s amused expression falters. “I… I had a friend. She taught me.”

Nell knows that voice - she’s heard way too many people use it these days - so she backs off. “Right. That’s cool, Stacy-dude.”

Just then, running footfalls sounded just outside their hiding place. Instinctively, Nell crouches down, flattening herself against the ground as the noises get louder and louder. Stacy inhales sharply, and Nell, in the corner of her eye, sees her hands wrap around the handles of her knives.

The footsteps slow as they near the roses, and Nell’s heart stutters when her gaze locks with that of a young Town-Guard.

Her surprise is only momentary. Before even Stacy can react, Nell has the guard by the shirt-collar, her hand clapped over his mouth. It’s only another second before Stacy whacks him over the head with the butt of her knife-handle - his eyes roll up in his head as he slumps forward, out cold.

Without preamble, they pull him over the bushes and into their hiding place. Stacy isn’t gentle, dropping him unceremoniously in a position that was sure to be uncomfortable when he woke up - and while Nell can’t help but wince at the way the thorns had dragged across his face and skin, she still heaved a sigh of relief.

Stacy sheathes her knife before turning to Nell, her eyes urgent. “They’re looking for us. We gotta go.”

Nell nods, looking warily back and forth for any other guards. She could spot at least twelve in the near vicinity. “Dude, they’ve got the whole regiment after us, most likely.” She groans softly under her breath. “How the hell are we supposed to get outta here without getting spotted?”

Stacy rummages through her inventory, then gives a little cry of triumph when she pulls out two glass bottles with glistening purple liquid swirling inside them. “Aha! Here,” she whispers, handing Nell a bottle. “Drink this. It’s an Invisibility Potion. They won’t see us during then.”

Already Nell can feel the excitement brewing in his veins. Popping the cork off, he tilts his head back and downs the potion in one shot. It tastes watery and disgusting, and he reaches up to wipe his mouth of the fluid before realizing, Oh. I can’t see my hands.

Awestruck, he looks around for Stacy, but she’s nowhere to be seen. The only hint she’d been there at all was flattened mulch beside the body of the Town-Guard, and the lingering smell of honeysuckle. Then he feels her breath on his ear, jumping in surprise when he hears her voice.

“On the count of three,” she murmurs.

“You are literally the coolest person I’ve ever met, Stacey-dude,” Nell whispers loudly.

She hears a noise that might’ve been a laugh. “Three.”

Nell feels Stacy move away, brisk on her feet as she brushes past the thorny roses and into the open street, and is quick to follow.

She’s only able to locate Stacy by the muffled little pit-pat of her leather boots on the cobblestones, and the hushed whispers and whistles she throws out behind her. The place is crawling with Town-Guards, and they are completely out in the open. Nell’s heart has dropped low in their stomach like a heavy stone; any moment now, they were expecting to be caught and captured. 

But no one even cast a glance in their direction. They were completely invisible.

The duo reach the southern wall of BeaconTown. The forest, and relative safety, lay just over it. There was just one more risk to take.

Nell hears the quiet shing of metal sliding out of an inventory, and a moment later, a small divot in the wall was made. Stacy tugs gently on their hand, and the two crowd close into the new space before Stacy pushes past Nell, reaches around them, and seals the tunnel closed. Immediately, they’re plunged in darkness.

Hoo boy.

Now, Nell isn’t claustrophobic. She wasn’t! But there was something so, so very uncomfortable with being able to feel the walls on all sides, the ceiling scraping the top of her head as she moved, and just… not being able to detect anything else. There was nothing to see. The only sounds were their footsteps, the muffled crumbling of Stacy’s pickaxe against stone, and her own ragged breath as she felt her stomach churn faster and faster, like a storm that couldn’t be stopped.

Out of instinct more than anything, she grabbed Stacy’s arm. The other woman tenses, then stops. “Nell? What is it?”

“I…” Nell hesitates, not sure what to say. “I just really don’t like it in here, dude. It’s too dark. And totes freaky.”

Stacy doesn’t respond right away. When she finally does, her voice is softer than Nell’s ever heard it. “...We’ll be out soon, okay? I can hear the sound of rushing water just through the stones.”

Nell, through the darkness and the spell of invisibility, manages a shaky smile. “Y-Yeah. Totally.”

They both fall silent. Stacy continues mining, but with more fervor than before. Nell, with nothing to do and nothing to hold onto, focused on her breathing. She couldn’t afford to hyperventilate and die in some stupid tunnel in the wall - after all her hard work to get to this moment, that would be a huge fucking waste of effort spent.

Instead, she breathes deeply through her nose and out of her mouth, closing her eyes. With every minute, she counted.

One.

The cracking of stone as Stacy mined.

Two.

Another smash as pebbles crumbled.

Three.

Four.

Five.

Six.

Seven.

Eight.

Nine.

Ten. And then - 

Light flooded through the musty hole, blinding her momentarily. 

Nell couldn’t help it. She let out a whoop of triumph, which immediately earned her a violent Shush! from Stacy. She didn’t care; not when the dying sunlight on her face felt like salvation on her skin. Freedom was sweet!

As soon as Stacy got the hole cleared, Nell grabbed her hand and scampered past her into the woods, laughter bubbling past her lips. Walking on soft grass and loam again was a stark contrast to the clink of pebbles and stone of the city roads - and she relished the feeling of it. She’d thought she’d never feel it again.

Exhaustion hit her so suddenly she doubled over, dropping to her knees on the forest floor as she struggled to regain her breath. Stacy gives a little cry of alarm, hurrying over to her side. “Nell! Are you alright?”

“Yeah,” Nell croaks through the pounding in their ears. They smile weakly. “Just… an adrenaline crash. Don’t worry , Stace-man. Everything’s…” They slump onto their face, limbs spread awkwardly in the dirt. “Everything’s just stellar .”

Stacy rolls them over onto their back, crouching down next to them with a look of fond exasperation on her face. It looks like a face she wears a lot. Wow, Nell’s kind of in love with it. “Is this something that happens to you often?”

Nell closes their eyes and violently giggles; it’s the insane kind of giggle that leaves them breathless for a few seconds. “You shoulda seen me back in the Games, man! I took naps for DAYS.”

“Stacy? Nell? Is that you?”

Nell’s eyes shoot open. “Lukas!” they exclaim, smiling up at him. From the corner of their eye, they see Stacy snap to attention.

“Oh, thank Aether, it is!” Lukas’s whole face lights up as he smiles. He’s ditched the patchy red cloak and his jacket’s wrapped around his waist; it’s the most casual Nell’s ever seen him. He places a hand over his chest, heaving a sigh of relief. “Thank the Gods. We’ve been worried sick about you! What took you so long?” Apprehension clouds his features. “...Did everything go as planned?”

Stacy answers first, rising to her feet. “Yes, the plan succeeded,” she replies, pausing for a moment to add, “though it was all Nell, really. I was only useful when we were escaping.”

“When you were escaping ?” Lukas’s eyes widened, and his ears flattened. “Were you seen?” He frowned when he saw their guilty expressions. “...Well, I can tell you weren’t followed. But this complicates things. If Jesse gets a hold of your descriptions, there’s no telling what he’ll do to us.”

Stacy ran a hand through her messy hair, heaving a sigh. “I’m sorry, Lukas. We weren’t careful enough. It won’t happen again.”

From her place on the ground, Nell sat up, nodding vigorously as he agreed with Stacy’s words. “Yeah. Sorry, dude. We’ll keep ourselves in check next time, I swear on my wheat patch.”

That surprises a laugh out of Lukas, and his face softens. “I’ll hold you to that. Now c’mon, let’s get you guys back to the base - you look like you really need a nap, Nell.”

Nell giggles, brushing the dirt off his leather jacket. Lukas holds a hand out to him, and he takes it. As he’s hauled to his feet, the ocelot hybrid gives him a meaningful glance. 

Nell knows what it’s about. He nods back. With a look of relief on his face, Lukas lets go of his hand. “Let’s go.”

“Righteous,” Nell exclaims, ripping the cloth mask off his mouth and using it to wipe the filth from his face. “I’m in desperate need of a bath.”

Stacy snickers, and Lukas agrees wholeheartedly with that statement as they make their way through the woods.

-

Stampy attacks Stacy with a bearhug as soon as he spots her come back. She gives an uncharacteristic yelp of surprise when he wraps his arms around her shoulders, but after a moment returns the hug. Nell thinks he can hear a few sniffles from Stampy’s direction as well. He leaves them to it, heading to the river and shucking off his dirty clothes for a quick bath before heading back to the base. Clean clothes had never felt so good against his skin.

Other Ocelots clap Nell on the back at the base of the tree and cheer when she climbs into the treehouse, congratulating him on a job well done. One of them - Nell recognizes him as the former town butcher, who’d been imprisoned for rescuing some of the former honorary pigs that Jesse had scheduled for butchering - offers her a few baked potatoes and some chicken, which she gratefully takes from him. As she scarfed them down, he thanked her profusely for her service. 

She swallowed and smiled. Her popularity amongst the rebels had skyrocketed. She supposed that was what assisting the destruction of your enemy’s treasures will do to you.

After finishing her meal and downing a glass of milk along with it, she left the treehouse once more. The item she carried seemed to weigh heavier in her inventory, but she shook the feeling away. Lukas was waiting at the lake, and she hated to disappoint him.

-

The lake is peaceful. Located deep in the forest, where Beacontown was just a few faraway towers peeking over the treetops, it was almost completely undisturbed. The grass rustled in the wind, and birds twittered as they flew overhead. The dying sunlight cast an orange glow over the still waters stretching over the horizon.

Lukas sat by the shore, interrupting the stillness as he skipped pebbles over the surface of the lake. When she approached, he’d managed to get it to skip five times, and he pumped his fist in the air and quietly cheered. As she got closer, one of his ears flicked, and he turned to look at her expectantly.

“Hey, Lu,” Nell said, raising a lazy hand in greeting. “I got ya what you asked for. It’s totes intact and everything.”

Lukas smiles. “Thanks, Nell. I’m just surprised he kept it in the Treasure Hall, and didn’t - I dunno - burn it, or something. Could I have it?”

“Sure, dude. Here.”

Delicately, as if she were holding an ingot of gold, she handed him what was left of Reuben the pig, carefully wrapped in cloth. He took it from her with trembling hands, his eyes clouding over as he stared at the soft bundle in his arms.

Awkwardly, Nell gestured to the lake behind him. “Do you… want me to leave? ‘Cuz I can. I didn’t know the little guy very well, and this seems…”

(Nell’s never been to a burial before. She didn’t know how to act. There was no need to learn, in a world without death.)

Lukas startles, then shakes his head quickly, shooting her a strained sort of smile. “No, you can stay. Help me… help me dig him a grave. By the water. I have some friends coming over, but they won’t be here in time to help.”

Nell nods. Building, she can understand.

She digs a good-sized hole by the water, as Lukas rummages through a shulker box he’d tucked into his inventory. He pulls out quartz and diorite, and a few blocks of aquamarine. Silently, they begin to build a little memorial monument around the hole.

They finish in a matter of minutes, builders that they are. Lukas stands to the side, admiring their work. Then he walks over to the hole in the center of the monument, the bundle in his arms.

“Should I go?” Nell asks again, feeling stiff and awkward watching him. He shakes his head. There’s something fond in his eyes as he looks at her.

“No. Stay, please. I don’t think I want to be alone right now, and you’re one of my best friends.”

Feeling warm with his praise, Nell steps closer. Lukas turns back to the hole. Gently, he lowers the bundle down, nestling it lovingly in the soft dirt of the lakeside. He straightens up. His eyes are faraway and sad.

“Goodbye, Reuben,” he murmurs. “Thank you for everything. For staying by all of our sides in a dark time. We all loved you, Jesse in particular.”

He takes a shuddering breath. Tentatively, Nell places a soft hand on his shoulder. He glances gratefully at her, before continuing. His voice grew stronger.

“We miss you, Reuben,” he says. “Olivia, Axel, Ivor… and me, though I didn’t know you well. And especially Jesse.” His voice breaks on Jesse’s name, but he doesn’t stop talking. “Jesse has missed you every day since your death all those years ago… But forgive me when I say that I’m glad you’re not around anymore, so you don’t have to see what Jesse has become.”

He turns away, eyes squeezing shut. His jaw is clenched, and his ears are flattened as far as they can go. Nell squeezes his shoulder in what she prays is a reassuring gesture, feeling hopelessly awkward. She felt like an intruder, and no matter what Lukas might’ve said, she was. His words weren’t meant for her ears.

But he leans into her touch, and she doesn’t step away. After a few beats of silence, he turns back to the grave, his face set with grim determination. 

“Rest in peace, Reuben,” he says, placing a hand over his heart. “I’ll try my best to stop Jesse. I know you’d’ve wanted what’s best for Beacontown, with that brave heart of yours. I hope you’ll forgive anything I’ll have to do to achieve that.”

He falls silent, gazing at the monument, his hand over his heart. The wind ruffles his blonde hair, sunlight painting him in gold. He doesn’t move, his eyes drifting shut. Quietly, Nell removes her hand from his shoulder. As silently as possible, she drops to the ground, kneeling at the edge of the hole with her head down. 

They stay there, in their almost-vigil, until the sun is just a sliver of orange over the lake and the stars are beginning to twinkle. Nell feels Lukas’s feather-light touch on her shoulder, his claws clicking against her skin. “C’mon,” he says softly. “Let’s bury him and get back. And place some torches.”

“‘Course, Lu,” she replies, rising to her feet and stretching her stiff muscles. When they’re done shoveling dirt into the hole, she stops and looks at him, choosing her words carefully for once.

“I hope…” she pauses. “I hope you found some closure, burying the little guy. I dunno your, like, backstory with him and Jesse or anything, but I hope you found some peace, is all,” she finishes, feeling hot as she stumbles over her words like a toddler.

Lukas nods in return, his blue eyes sparkling with a sort of wry humor. “I think I did. Thanks for… retrieving him. And, y’know, staying when I need you.” He huffed a laugh. “You’re risking your neck for the Ocelots. Moreover, you’re risking your neck for me . You didn’t have to do that. You still don’t.”

Nell snorted. “I don’t? You kidding? Jesse’s, like, totally lost his marbles! I couldn’t have just… done nothing, while he barreled through the town like that. That’s just uncool.”

Lukas giggles, bringing a hand up to his mouth as he does so - Nell hasn’t been around him long, but she knows it’s a habit he’s developed to hide his serrated teeth - and does his best to school his features into something more serious. “Still. You didn’t have to stay. Thank you , Nell.”

She doesn’t really know how to respond, so she just nods, hoping that would be enough. He seems to think so.

They start walking through the woods, as night fell all around them. Mobs weren’t something to worry about; Lukas had been sure to place torches to light the way back, so they were safe for the most part. They didn’t speak at first, until Nell found they couldn’t stand the silence.

“What was he like?”

“Hm?” Lukas shot them a puzzled look. “Who, Jesse? Or Reuben?”

“I dunno,” they shrugged. “Reuben, I guess. I only just got here, dude. I didn’t have time to, like, tour the museums or whatever.”

Lukas thought for a moment. “Well, Reuben was brave,” he began, tone halting.

“I coulda guessed,” Nell replied, grinning toothily. “But I mean, what was he really like ?”

Lukas kept his eyes on the torches as they passed by, his voice distant. “He loved running around, and finding things,” he says slowly. “He enjoyed being scratched just behind the ears. He was fierce in a fight, too. And he could eat . He could eat just about anything you put in front of him. Especially carrots. He loved carrots.” 

The hybrid shook his head, lost in the memories. There was a small smile on his lips. “Back before all that Order of the Stone business, he snuck away from Jesse’s group during EnderCon and crept over to our side of the building competition.” He laughed. “We found him rooting through our materials chest. Gill had stashed some carrots in there, as a snack. Reuben got to ‘em first. Aiden was so mad, he yelled at Jesse for like an hour. We still won the competition, but Gill went hungry the whole time we were building. Reuben gave us a smug look every time his stomach growled.”

Nell cackled, amused. “Ha! He sounds like an awesome guy. Pig, I mean. That’s hilarious, Lu.”

Lukas’s smile widened. “I know. I was trying to contain my laughter the whole day. It was comedy gold.” His eyes get faraway again, a little misty. “Olivia told me once that he hated swimming, but he loved lakesides. And sunsets. That’s why I wanted to bury him there, assuming I could’ve gotten my hands on what’s left of him. I… I’m surprised Jesse hasn’t done away with him, yet.”

The words seem to just spill out of him unbidden, like the secret waters of a hidden stream. “I just… I don’t know what’s happened. Reuben and Jesse were both so full of love , of joy and courage and everything good in the world. And now it’s just… gone. Reuben’s dead. Jesse’s - Jesse’s worse than dead. He’s something worse than death. I… I wish he were dead…”

He trails off. Nell studies his expression, shadowed in the torchlight. They see something in his face that makes them balk.

They’d really only heard murmurs, whispers and rumors from the other Ocelots. A hero’s heart. The leader’s smile. Love, once upon a time. He’d loved him. Given Nell’s history of rumors and gaslighting, they were inclined to take everything the other rebels said with a grain of salt. But looking at Lukas’s face now…

“You’re in love with Jesse.”

That stops Lukas in his tracks. He stares at them, eyes wide. Face twisted in an expression Nell’s not sure how to name. Like someone had ripped his heart from his chest, inspected it, and casually put it back in again without warning. 

“Oh,” Nell says, feeling rather faint. 

Neither of them move.

Then Nell barrels into Lukas with a crushing hug. And that’s enough to break the dam he’s been so meticulously repairing.

He cries hard into their shoulder, his talons digging into the fabric of their shirt as they hold him as tight as they could. His chest is racked with sobs. It’s the ugly kind of crying, the kind only reserved for the truest types of pain. Nell does their best to soothe him, rubbing circles into his back with the palm of their hand. His knees buckle, but he doesn’t fall, and they don’t let him. They pull him closer, not caring about the tears and the snot, their arms wrapped around his body as he sobs and sobs and sobs.

Their lip curls. They don’t care about the danger. Wherever Jesse was, they were going to skin him alive .

At last, Lukas’s heaving sobs subside. There’s only a few sniffles and whimpers, and he keeps his head on their shoulder and his arms wrapped around their back. They let him. 

“How did you know?” he whispers, his voice hoarse. Nell smiles sadly over his shoulder.

“It was pretty obvious your feelings went deeper than just a broken friendship, dude. It wasn’t that hard to figure out.” They fake a laugh, sounding dry and awkward in the process. “It’s groovy by the way; you liking another dude. Love is love.”

Lukas chokes out a laugh. It sounds strangled, malformed. “I’ve loved him for four long, painful years. I will continue to love him for more. I have followed him through every battle, every dimension, every death at the end of a weapon. I would’ve followed him to the end of the world. I thought he felt the same. So where did it all go wrong ?” His voice cracked. Despair is seeped into every word. “I don’t know where he’s gone. I just know that the person I loved is no longer here.”

Nell’s heart throbs. They squeeze him tight, trying to cram every bit of the light they felt for him into his body with their hug. “He’s not worth it. He’s a fucking bastard for hurting you. We will stop him, Lu. This I swear .”

They hold him through each shuddering breath. Then, he finally pulls away, wiping his face with the back of his hand. He smiles shakily as he does this, his red-rimmed eyes not meeting theirs. “Oh, Aether. I’m so sorry. I usually don’t lose my composure like that. I guess… I dunno. I’m sorry, Nell.”

Nell places both hands on his shoulders, turning his face so they could see eye to eye. “No, don’t apologize, Lu. Jesse’s not worth anyone's goddamn tears. But you? You are. You’re worth every fight.”

Lukas just shakes his head, but the blinding smile he gives them makes them think, Wow. If I liked men.

They don’t say anything else as they walk back to the treehouse. They don’t need to.

-

There’s a tall man in green and a woman in red waiting at the foot of the treehouse when they return. They rush over to Lukas when they spot him.

“Lukas!” exclaims the woman, her curly brown hair bouncing behind her as she hurried over to him. “We’ve been waiting for you.” She studied his face, her eyes scrutinizing. “...Have you been crying?”

“Is the monument built?” interrupts the man, before Lukas can reply. The hybrid shoots him a grateful look, which he replies with a wink.

“Yeah,” Lukas answers. “Would you like to go pay your respects? I buried him by the lake and everything.”

“Of course,” says the woman, with a solemn look on her face. “Lead the way, Lu.”

Lukas turns to Nell and hugs them. “Thank you,” he whispers.

Nell hugs him back. They aren’t great with words. But they hope Lukas will remember this embrace like they remember his.

He leaves with the woman and the tall man, and Nell tucks their conversation close to their heart.