Justice bit her lip upon walking inside the right mansion. A single redstone lamp hung from the ceiling the center while a single torch was placed above each painting. Eight torches, and one redstone lamp.
In other words- not very bright.
She gulped, a bead of sweat trailing down the side of her head as she looked at the dimly lit room. She grimaced when Eli pushed past her, seemingly without a thought. "Wh-what ex-xactly are we h-hoping to a-achieve here?" She asked as she looked around for a light switch. There was none.
She turned to look at the nearest painting just as Eli replied, saying, "Olivia told us that everyone in this group was in the paintings of this gallery." He extended his hand and shined the light of the torch towards the gallery. "Eight paintings. Sound familiar?"
Justice's eyes landed on the plaque beneath the first painting as she hummed in thought. "Eight j-journal entries?" She looked back up at the painting, then frowned. It was a picture of when she and the others found the Wither in Ivor's lair. Except the person in the middle of the group wasn't her- it was someone else.
A girl in yellow overalls.
"Exactly." He looked at the one Justice was looking at, a blank look on his face, before he walked over to the others. "I was hoping we could find a connection between those entries and these paintings."
Justice walked over to the next picture. It was split in two - one side had a picture of a raven-haired girl in the middle of chaos, and the other had a boy in white and red surrounded by machinery.
Her eyes narrowed at the second part, then she turned around.
"H-Hey, Eli-"
But he was nowhere to be found.
GRTE OEK ADEM JXU FXHQIU 'MXQJ OEK QHU YD JXU TQHA?'
MUBB, MXUJXUH OEK ADEM JXQJ EH DEJ, Y DUUT OEK JE IUDT CQIED QDEJXUH CUIIQWU VEH CU.
OUQX, QJ JXYI FEYDJ, OEK'LU RUSECU CO CUIIUDWUH. XQXQ!
QDOMQO, SEKBT OEK JUBB JXUC JXQJ IECUEDU'I IFYBBUT JXU SEEB RUQDI QWQYD? JXQDAI.
XQLU Q WEET EDU!
(Url-b! Vg'f zr, Znfba! Vs lbh'er ernqvat guvf, pbatengf!)
(Vg zrnaf lbh'ir qrpvcurerq guvf zrffntr! Ubj pbby vf gung?)
(Naljnl, hu.. gurer'f abg zhpu sbe zr gb fnl urer.)
(Rkprcg gung vs lbh'ir fbyirq guvf naq gur cnfg gjb zrffntrf, pbybe zr vzcerffrq! Lbh zvtug unir whfg orpbzr bar bs zl snibhevgr crbcyr! ..zvtug unir.)
(Unununun!)
(...lbh QVQ qrpvcure gur bgure gjb zrffntrf, evtug?)
- znfba
A single moment had passed before Jesse shrugged and looked back down at the journal. But just as he was about to read the second entry, Justice called out to him from across the garden. When he looked up, she was running towards him.
"What?"
"Eli!"
He frowned. "I'm not-"
"Have you seen him?" She asked in between pants. His brows furrowed.
"No, why?"
She looked around nervously, shining the torch in her hand as far as she could. "W-We were looking around th-the gallery. I was looking at o-one of the paintings, but when I t-turned around, he was g-gone."
He raised a brow. "Are you sure he didn't just go to the second floor?"
The girl gave him a look. "You think I'd have c-come here if I didn't even ch-check?"
He shrugged. "Kinda."
She frowned, then heaved a sigh. "N-nevermind. I-I'm gonna k-keep looking, a-and if he c-comes around," she pointed at the left mansion, "t-tell him I'm there, ok-kay?"
He nodded. With a grateful smile, she turned and brisk walked to the third mansion. He watched her go until she disappeared into the shadows. Then he glanced around. "Is anyone else gonna disturb me?" He asked no one in particular. Receiving no answer, he smiled, then looked down and began to read the second entry.
[Entry 2 - REUNITING THE ORDER
So we found Ellegaard. Problem: we're stuck. In an underground room.] Jesse cracked up. 'What?'
[Time to recap.
Olivia and I went to Redstonia and, after some complications, were able to talk to Ellegaard. And guess what? She was trying to build that pulsing machine the Wither had at the center of itself when we found it in Ivor's lair. It took her more than 6,400 tries to do so!] Jesse frowned. How long was that woman trying to create that machine?
[We tried to help her make it, but I guess we took too long.]
"What, did you actually think you could make the machine that took her sixty-four hundred tries to build within minutes?" He muttered sarcastically.
[The Wither Storm caught up to us, and we had to make a run for it. When we got back to the Temple, we were in for some surprises. First off, Petra came back! She's okay!...well, we thought she was, but I'll get to that in a while.] Jesse raised a brow, but didn't comment.
[And the other thing. Axel went on his own to get Magnus. His and Ellegaard's encounter went just as well as you would expect.] 'Not very well?'
[But Ellegaard had an idea to destroy the Wither Storm.
Apparently, Soren had a thing called the Formidibomb (or F-bomb, for short), which Ellegaard said could destroy the storm. Thing is, we didn't know where Soren was, so we tried the amulet again.
And lo and behold, the architect appears! A white light shone at the top of the map. The amulet was able to track Soren's location.] 'Okay, but how? Do I get an explanation for that?' He wondered.
Spoilers: He doesn't get an explanation.
[But it caught someone else too. A dark blue shone immediately after, and it was on its way to the white light. Try guessing who that was.]
'Gabriel?'
[We left immediately to try and catch up to, or possibly get there before, Ivor.]
"Oh." A pause, then his eyes narrowed. 'What's his color, then?'
[We couldn't let the Wither catch up to us.
So we went to Soren's place. No sign of Ivor. We all split up to cover more ground. Petra wanted to be alone with me. Why?
I finally found out what was wrong with her. She wanted to tell me what it was- she had Wither Sickness.]
'What's that?'
[There was a spot of purple on her left arm, and it was spreading.]
Jesse frowned. 'No explanation for that, either?'
[Just then, a creeper appeared, and we got separated. Petra went to go get help, while I had to find my own way.
I found myself in the room I'm in now. I found Ivor, who was looking through Soren's stuff. We had a fight, with Petra joining in later on, but we lost. When everyone else (except for Magnus and Ellegaard) caught up to us, Ivor used a Splash Potion of Slowness on us and got away.
So here we are. Stuck.
I'm gonna go and look for a way out.]
And the entry ended there.
Jesse's eyes narrowed at the journal. 'So you're telling me that you ended up stuck in a room and wrote all of this while a big monster was chasing you?' He blinked, 'What were the others doing while you wrote this? How long did it take for her to write this?'
He frowned, but continued forward and flipped to the third entry
[Entry 3 - Finding Soren
Crap.]
Jesse repressed a snort. "What an intro."
[So we were able to use the amulet to find Soren. The amulet led us straight underground, all the way to some massive grinder.] 'What's a grinder?' [I'm assuming Soren built it himself, too.
And since it's a grinder, you know what else we'd find.] "Not really." [Soon enough, monsters came, and we had to fight. But a creeper caught us off guard, and it blew a hole in the tube thing we were in.]
'How many creepers are these idiots gonna run into?' Jesse thought with a frown. [The amulet went flying out of my hands, and it landed on a walkway. We immediately went down to get it back, but...
Soon enough, it was teetering over an edge, and it was a choice between Axel and Reuben or the amulet.] Jesse frowned. 'Wait, what? How? What's going on?!' [I told Lukas to go after Axel, while I got the amulet. Unfortunately, we all ended up falling down to the grinder. But, as you can probably tell, we're all alive.]
The boy rolled his eyes. "Somehow."
[But Petra is mad at me. She's mad I went after the amulet instead of my friends.] He pursed his lips, conceding the point. [She wouldn't listen to my apologies, either. But at least everyone is safe, right? And Axel is actually accepting Lukas a lot faster and better than he did, so that's gotta count for something.]
Jesse raised a brow, but said nothing.
[Anyway, we found Soren. He was in the End.] Jesse's eyes narrowed. 'What's he doing in the End?' [We went through this End portal, and found him walking up some big staircase leading to a large building. After a very, very long climb, we found ourselves in some world made of wool. Signs that Soren was going bonkers, alright. But no sign of him actually there.
But Lukas was acting..strange. Earlier in the room, he really wanted to be the one holding the amulet, and then now, he's just exploded. So I talked to him. Turns out, he's just really, really worried about Petra. I couldn't really keep it from him, could I? Even if Petra insisted on not telling anyone (forgot to mention that earlier. Sorry).]
Jesse facepalmed.
[So I told Lukas, and he seems to be okay now. Sort of. But anyway, after solving this puzzle that led us to some other secret hideout, Olivia and I found a room that lead straight to the rest of the End. We found out that he was trying to teach Endermen to build.] Jesse's brows furrowed. "Wait, what?" [The greatest architect of all time, and this is what he's been spending all his time on?!]
Jesse was inclined to agree, for once.
[Frustrations aside, I had to lure him out somehow. So I used an Enderman disguise in his room and slipped into the outdoor End.] Jesse gaped at the journal, eyes wide in shock. 'Does this woman want to die?' [After some complications that I don't really need to talk about, I managed to get his attention.
I tried explaining things to him, and sooner or later, he agreed to help us out with the F-bomb. Once we gathered all the materials needed, we left his place and to the outside, where we found Magnus and Ellegaard fighting some mobs. We were all reunited!]
'This woman has skewed priorities.'
[But someone had to go set the bomb off. Nobody volunteered, so..it was up to me.] "And why is that?" [Before I could leave, though, both Ellegaard and Magnus offered me their armor. I chose Magnus' armor.
Clad in his green griefer outfit, I ran for the Wither Storm. I set off the Formidibomb, and sent it for the Storm via tractor beam. Before the explosion could take me, though, my friends caught me with a fishing rod, and reeled me away from the F-bomb's explosion.
We must have won, right? ...
...Magnus is dead.]
Jesse blinked, and once again, he was in shock. He stared, going back to his 'lost fish' reaction.
'That went from 1 to 100 really fast.'
[While I was crafting the bomb, he got hit by a tentacle and was sent flying, several feet into the air. He hit a tree, hard, back first.
He passed, thinking that we finally won. But his sacrifice was in vain.]
Jesse sighed. 'Of course it was.'
[While we were gathering up and helping the survivors, I found that the Command Block-] "The what now?" [-was still intact. The F-bomb couldn't destroy it. Before I knew it, it was pulling me towards it. I tried to get away, but I couldn't.] Jesse's eyes narrowed.
[Then the impossible happened. Gabriel came back, and pulled me away from the block. As the Wither was repairing itself from above us, I found out that Gabriel had amnesia.
Everything is just perfect.]
Jesse frowned, then looked back up. He pressed his hands together and pursed his lips. His brows furrowed.
'What?'
So much was happening at once. Maybe less for Jesse than Red, but still. Just a few minutes ago, he was reading about his counterpart winning the Endercon Competition and getting roped into one of Petra's shady deals. Then the Witherstorm happened, she was trusted with the Order's amulet, and suddenly she was on a mission to save the world. She reunites the Order and they get the bomb that they thought would kill the storm.
And suddenly Magnus is dead?
'I mean... I don't even know the guy personally, but… It's really sudden.'
And, what, Gabriel's got amnesia too? What's going on?! And speaking of sudden.. how long did all of this take to happen? A few days?
He looked back down at the journal and flipped through each entry. Entry 3 was made on June 13, Δ42. His brows furrowed, he checked the second entry. June 12. Then he checked the first entry's date.
June 11, Δ42.
This all happened the same year he came from; and the building competition was set to happen on the 9th of June, Δ42.
Earlier, Thief said something along the lines of how these entries detailed "how they became the Order." 'They' being everyone there in the room save for Jesse and Reuben. If it did happen to all of them, and since all the people named Jesse are the same person..
'...Then that must mean that this was going to happen to me, too.'
He blinked, and another moment of just taking things in ensued.
Then, he heaved a sigh.
'There are still five other entries to go through. I should keep going.'
With that, Jesse continued on to Entry 4.
[Entry 4 - Destroying the Storm
...]
Jesse sighed. 'I'm loving these introductions.'
[We all retreated to a cave, far from the wither storm. We needed time to breath and gather our thoughts.
Gabriel has amnesia, Petra's basically dying of Wither Sickness, and Magnus is dead. The week hadn't even ended yet, and already, we've gone through so much crap, it's unbelievable.]
'Exactly what I was thinking just earlier.'
[Ellegaard and Soren are trying to help Gabriel regain his memories, while everyone else is with Petra. They must have found out by now.]
'No kidding.'
[When Gabriel saw Lukas' jacket, he told us that he saw the other Ocelots after the wither was temporarily defeated. At this, Lukas immediately wanted to go and find his friends, but... I couldn't let him. As much as I understood why he wanted to go, it was too dangerous for him, or any of us, to go out there alone.
I didn't want to lose him like we lost Magnus.]
'That... sounded cliche as hell.'
[Thankfully, I managed to convince him not to go.]
Jesse facepalmed. 'Congrats, you just kept a guy from going after his friends. ...Then again, they are the Ocelots, so...'
[But Petra wasn't getting any better. Hopefully destroying the Wither Storm will wipe away her sickness.]
'That's like saying killing a wolf would get rid of a person's rabies.' Jesse shook his head, 'God, this woman is an idiot.'
[I overheard Soren arguing with someone not too far away, and decided to check. And guess who decided to join the party?
Ivor. He came to us to tell us that we were all in danger, because the Wither Storm was programmed to follow the amulet by the command block. Which is fantastic. But he also said that he had the means to defeat the storm, but it was in his lab, which was all the way in the Far Lands.]
Jesse's brows furrowed.
"...What?"
[So we had to go. Axel offered to hold on to the amulet and meet with us at Soren's fortress, while we went to get the weapon that could destroy the wither storm. Ellegaard volunteered to go with. Meanwhile, Petra had to stay in the cave. (Hopefully Axel misleading the storm will at least buy her time.)]
'Just saying, other-me, but I don't think the length of time the source of the ailment stays alive determines how long it takes for the person infected to die.'
[When we finally got to the Far Lands (which took us two or three days, at best)-] Jesse paused, then counted the days on his fingers. 'June 15, then?' He pursed his lips and double checked, then nodded. 'Yeah, June 15.' [Ivor wasn't with us. We got separated right when we were only running distance from his lab, so we were on our own. After getting through a messy labyrinth, we found the lab, but also a horrible truth.
Everyone in the Order was a fraud.]
'Wait,' Jesse screwed his eyes shut, then they opened and narrowed down at the journal, 'what?'
[Every single one of them. Soren, Gabriel, Ellegaard, Magnus...
Apparently, Soren had used the Command Block to make them the legends they were today (except Ellegaard, apparently. She's just as a magnificent redstone engineer as she was back then). He used the same block to blink the Enderdragon out of existence, and they all took credit for destroying it.]
Jesse threw the journal in the air across the garden. With arms spread wide and lips pursed, he watched the blue book fall to the cobblestone path.
FLOP!
A few seconds of Jesse staying in that position had passed before his arms fell to his sides and he heaved a sigh. He bit his lip and looked around, until his eyes landed on the obsidian cell behind him. "Hey, 'woman of her word!'" He called out. Silence was his response.
'She must be asleep, then.'
He frowned, then looked back at the book sprawled on the floor. It narrowly missed a torch, apparently. 'Eli'd have my head if it actually caught on fire.' He thought with a snort, but any humor quickly died down as his gaze lingered on the book. 'Yeah, no, I'm not gonna continue reading that thing.' He crossed his arms stubbornly and looked away. His eyes just so happened to land on the gate to the left mansion. 'Justice must have gone through it, I can just ask her to tell me what happened.'
Yeah, no.
Justice was taking far too long investigating the mansion, and god knows where Eli was right now.
Jesse grumbled. He got up and stomped over to the book, cursing his impatience as he did so. He picked it up and dusted any dirt away and flattened any crumpled pages before he went back to his spot beside Thief's cell. He reread where he left off, then continued from there.
[But Ivor didn't agree with their methods. He left the Order, resulting in him being erased from the legend.] 'I'm guessing this 'Command Block' had something to do with that, right?' [This entire business with the Wither Storm was to show the world what frauds the Order really was. (Although I understand where he's coming from, I don't agree with how he went about showing the world the Order of the Lies.)]
Jesse had to muffle a snort at this, even though there really wasn't anyone around to hear it.
[Putting that aside, with us all reunited, we were able to make the weapon that could destroy the Command Block. Ivor said that it could be any weapon at all, so I went with a shovel.] Jesse's laughter filled the enclosed area, and he forced himself to muffle it when he remembered where and what time it was. [After making the enchanted shovel, Ivor showed me a bunch of enchanted armor that he made that I could have. He said they could hold against most attacks, but..
I decided to keep Magnus' armor. I don't know why, it just felt...wrong.. to just replace his armor like that.]
'I get that you like being on the moral high ground and all, but,' Jesse kneaded his forehead and gave the journal a look, 'I have a feeling Magnus had that armor for years. Armor that's that old and worn probably wouldn't do much against a gigantic monster compared to some enchanted armor.'
[But my friends did get some armor, and I have to admit, they looked pretty cool in them. They just seemed to fit with them, for some reason.] 'Suspicious.' [But anyway.
We regrouped with Axel at Soren's place, but I needed a way to get inside the Wither to access the Command Block. So what did we do?
We used the Endermen. After aggravating enough of them and luring them into tractor beams, they made a big enough entryway for me to go through.] Jesse's brows furrowed. He blinked, then opened his mouth to say something, but stopped and shook his head. [After making a contraption that could send me into the Wither, I was ready to go. But midway through, Reuben joined me for the ride. He jumped into my cart and we were both sent flying for the storm.]
Jesse sighed and rubbed his eyes. 'Because of course he did.'
[As much as I didn't want him here... I was glad I wasn't alone there. Because everything was freaky as heck. Everyone was there, but...petrified. It was bad enough that I recognized some of them, but this..
I made my way for the Command Block. One strike wasn't enough for it to go bye-bye, but it was more than enough to aggravate the Wither Storm.] 'Maybe you shouldn't have used a shovel.' [As I was preparing another strike, I got knocked over by a tentacle.] 'Wait, I thought she was inside the Wither Storm?' [There was a big struggle for getting to the block and giving it enough hits, but soon, I was finally able to get close enough.
But then Reuben fell, and he was sent down an abyss that I could only assume led to the outside.] His eyes widened. 'Wait, what?!' [Enraged, I swung hard at the Command Block, finally breaking it to pieces. Then everything fell apart.
I fell into a lake, which saved my life from falling on cold, hard stone. Reuben, meanwhile...wasn't so lucky.]
The book was, once again, thrown across the garden.
A/N: simply reading journals sounded boring, so i added some stuff from justice and eli to make it a little less boring! :D
now.. i should get to writing chapter 8. And 9. And 10. and -
Review Replies!
BeliTheGhoti0304 - [Probably the latter xD] [If you say so...]
Jay - [Yay! :D] [Well, if you really want to decode these messages, you're gonna have to go out of your way to look for clue and answers.] [Really? I'm more of a dog person myself. Hahaha!] [:D]
NoItsBecky - [...? I think you're in the wrong chapter.]
Thanks for reading, and see you in the next chapter! :D
Have a good day :3
