Chapter 11 – Friends Reunited
Disclaimer: If you have not read Fred: Admin in Exile and/or Fred: Into the Multiverse yet. I suggest you read those stories first before reading this one.
(Minecraft: Story Mode and its characters belong to Telltale Games, not me.)
(JESSE'S POV)
Lukas led the group through the tunnel, Lluna following behind them.
Oh, I'm so glad you're all right, Jesse." Jack said.
Nurm made a noise of agreement.
"Yeah, I'm glad that I'm all right, too." Jesse responded. "After he took me away, I was just sent through challenge after challenge after challenge after challenge. I had completely lost track of time, and I thought that you all had just, given up on me."
"That sounds, that sounds horrible." Jack commented.
"Well, we're glad you're back." Petra said.
"I don't know what Fred is doing, but hopefully he's busy find some way to get us all out of here. But hopefully Prisoner X will be able to save him the trouble." Jesse continued. "But, what I can tell you is that he is definitely going to be furious when he finds out that Romeo decided to steal my face."
"And he has every right to react that way. Identity theft is no joke." Jack agreed.
They reached the end of the tunnel, which opened up into a giant room with flowing lava channels.
Jesse heard the click of a tripwire and felt a set of iron bars kick into action, he quickly pulled Nurm onto his side as they snapped shut.
"NO! NURMIE!" Jack exclaimed.
"Oh, that's so not good." Jesse added.
Jesse saw that Lluna had made it through the gates as well.
"Yeah, intense security all right." Lukas agreed.
Nurm gave a panicked look at Jack as he approached the iron bars.
"Just stick close to Jesse, all right?" Jack instructed. "We'll be fine, don't worry!"
"Yeah, you guys go on. Get Prisoner X." Petra agreed.
Jesse looked over the edge, to find what appeared to be a cell at the bottom of the vista, surrounded by lava.
"If I wanted to imprison the dreaded Prisoner X, that's where I'd do it." Jesse remarked. "I think that's where we need to go."
Jesse jumped down onto a platform below him, Nurm and Lluna following. Jesse jumped down onto another platform even lower. Nurm and Lluna following once again.
"Okay, now all we have to do is cross this conduit, reach the platform, jump down and not die." Jesse instructed. "Come on, I think we can make that jump."
Jesse jumped down onto the next platform.
"You're up next, Nurm."
Nurm jumped down, Jesse catching him.
"Okay, now you, Llu-"
Jesse was interrupted by Lluna jumping down next to him.
"Seriously, how do you do that?" Jesse asked. Looking down, they saw that their next jump will lead them straight to the bottom of the room, where Prisoner X's cell is.
"Last jump!" Jesse called as he, Nurm and Lluna jumped down. Jesse walked into the entrance of the cell, and almost flinched back at what he saw.
There, stood Prisoner X. She had messy purple hair, sickly looking skin, and she was wearing a straitjacket over her prisoner jumpsuit and a face muzzle. She was glaring at Jesse with extreme loathing. Jesse couldn't place his finger on it, but she looked familiar.
As Prisoner X made angry muffled vocalizations, Jesse hesitantly stepped closer and removed her face mask. She screamed in rage upon the mask coming off. Jesse took a step back.
"Whoa!"
"Who are you?!" Prisoner X demanded.
"I'm Jesse, you must be Prisoner X." Jesse introduced.
"Bold of you to come here, not knowing who you're dealing with." Prisoner X appraised. "I could shove you right into that lava, and you'd deserve it for being so trusting! So gullible! Just one little push."
Prisoner X gave a maniacal laugh.
"AND SIZZLE, SIZZLE, SIZZLE!"
"Yeah, sorry to break it to you, but you're not scaring me." Jesse said. "We're all locked up here. You're just another prisoner."
"Oh, I am so much more than that. So much more." Prisoner X snapped.
"Look, Prisoner X-"
"Xara!"
Jesse's eyes widened. Her messy purple hair, her name, and the fact that Jesse seemed to recognize her. Could this really be the Xara he was thinking of. Fred's old friend?
"You're supposed to know how to get out of here, right?" Jesse asked.
"What? Where did you get that idea?" Xara questioned. "No one's ever escaped the Sunshine Institute, and no one ever will."
"You try to escape all the time. Why would you do that if you didn't know the way out?" Jesse pointed out.
"I get bored from time to time. I like to stretch my legs, beat up a few guards. It doesn't mean a thing."
Okay, this wasn't working. Time for a different approach.
"Romeo stole my identity, and he's running around with MY face, doing horrible things in MY name!" Jesse explained. "I gotta get outta here now!"
"Romeo was here? Just now?" Xara asked, her eyes as wide as saucers.
"Yes, he was." Jesse confirmed.
"How exactly do you know about his real name?" Xara questioned. "That information isn't exactly public knowledge. At least not to the other prisoners."
"I have my sources." Jesse cryptically stated, winking.
"With that information you know about him, you're damn lucky he didn't just obliterate you on the spot. In fact, he never comes down here that often in person; except to put the Warden's feet to the fire from time to time."
"Well, there is no more Warden, Romeo fired him." Jesse relayed.
Xara's face beamed at that news.
"That's fantastic! We won't have any trouble escaping with that little creep out of the picture." Xara exclaimed.
"So, now you want to help me?"
"Any enemy of Romeo is a friend of mine, I always say." Xara stated. "Well, I never technically said that.
Jesse breathed a sigh of relief.
"So glad you changed your mind."
"YOU changed my mind, Jesse. You're obviously a formidable ally." Xara corrected. "But don't forget, you do need me. I'm the only one who knows the way out."
"If you know the way, then show me. Let's get out of here." Jesse said.
"Just one problem, this whole room is rigged to explode if I step one foot out of it." Xara pointed out.
"Explode?" Jesse repeated.
"Take a look around." Xara instructed. "If someone doesn't stand on at least one of these pressure plates on the floor, these sticky pistons will retract. Lava meets TNT and then the whole place blows up BEFORE YOU CAN SAY KABOOM! Hahaha!"
"That's a stone pressure plate." Jesse observed. "That means I can't just use a block."
"Oh, it's fine. One of your silly companions can stay behind, the rest of us can go." Xara said. "That's the situation."
"We're all getting out of here. No one's staying behind!" Jesse protested.
"Oh, I'm afraid that's quite impossible Jesse. One of them is going to have to stay." Xara insisted. "Augh, I hate to be a wet slime about all of this, but we have to get moving!"
"I can't just leave them here."
"Then just leave ONE of them here, as long as one pressure plate is stood upon, the trap won't spring. So, either the villager, or the llama must remain behind."
Nurm approached Jesse and made some noises. Jesse interpreted that as being that he was offering to stay behind.
"Nurm, no, you can't do that." Jesse protested.
"Oh, come on! We seriously don't have time for this." Xara snapped. "I'm leaving, if you're interested in escaping the Sunshine Institute alive, I suggest you do the same."
Jesse spent whole minute deciding, but eventually he chose to bring Nurm. He couldn't bear to have to face Jack's wrath, meanwhile he and Stella never saw eye to eye, so there was really no point bringing Lluna.
"No, Nurm. We have to go." Jesse said. "And you need to come with me, Jack wouldn't know what to do without you."
Nurm gave a noise of protest.
"Lluna, stay right there, okay?" Jesse instructed. "I'll come back for you, okay? You understand?"
Lluna made a noise that she understood. Jesse and Nurm approached Xara, who was out of her straitjacket now.
"How did you-" Jesse began.
"My straitjacket? Oh, that was the easy part." Xara said. "If you're done with your tearful goodbyes, we have a prison to escape from.
Xara flipped a lever which opened a set of iron bars and raised a bridge. Jesse, Xara and Nurm ran across it and into the tunnel.
(FRED'S POV)
And furious Fred was.
It had taken him half an hour to finally get Soren to concede and come with himself and Radar, but Fred felt that it was worth it.
The plan was for them to relax for a few hours before they would go down and find Fred's old book which contained the password for the Golden Gauntlet, but one look at the state of Beacontown forced him to move along with the plan instantly.
There, standing out like a sore thumb right in the center of Beacontown was a giant tower. The Beacon's had all been changed to red, and lava was flowing around everywhere. As if the red color wasn't evidence enough, Fred knew straight away it was Romeo because the place was literally bathed in Romeo's Admin Residue.
And if that wasn't bad enough, he saw it all coming from 'Jesse' who was flying in mid-air and was displaying Romeo's Admin eyes. Fred didn't buy it for a second, he knew straight away that was not Jesse, but Romeo. Fred had to fight the urge to march in there and tear Romeo a new one when he saw the panicked state of Beacontown's citizens.
"Oh, that arrogant, egotistical, MANIAC!" Fred growled in rage. He turned towards Radar and Soren who were staring with wide open mouths upon what was going on. "Look at that! That guy's ego is that large, I'm surprised he could fit with all four walls of the Far Lands."
"Yeah, I've done some things in my life I'm not proud of." Soren admitted. "But that? That is crossing way too many lines too far."
Fred sighed in frustration.
"Okay, people. Change of plans. We need to get moving, now."
And Fred teleported the three of them to a place where he never thought he'd ever see again; the very tower where Romeo attempted to kill Fred. The place was much darker than Fred had remembered it, but that was partly because the entire world was dark. In the distance, yellow colored lightning could be seen striking, and the place looked dead. Fred's guilt about leaving his keep behind grew, now that he knew exactly what kind of conditions they were living in.
"Whoa, there's another whole world down here." Radar commented.
"The first world, created by us. Romeo, Xara and me." Fred said. "Haven't seen it since Romeo's betrayal, before he bedrocked over it all."
"I'm so sorry." Soren empathized. "It must be pretty hard, seeing your old world like this."
But something else was grabbing Fred's attention, Fred could sense that he was right underneath the boundaries of a residue detector, which meant one thing. They might be able to rescue Jesse's friends, and possibly Jesse himself. Fred put on his human form and began to climb up the stairs behind him.
"Okay, friends. We're not going down there just yet, we've got some rescuing to do." Fred instructed. "Follow me."
Fred climbed the tower, Radar and Soren following. To Fred's utter relief, he saw that the tower seemed to cut through the bedrock. Pulling a pickaxe out, he smashed the windows at the very top of the tower, to reveal what appeared to be an obsidian maze around them.
"Just putting it out there now that I won't be able to use my powers down here. Romeo will let this one off, since he will probably think that I am just visiting the old world, but if I use any more powers, he might become suspicious that I am going against his word and investigate." Fred said. "However, I do already have some spare building materials on me, so let me scout out the area and see what we're walking into."
"Roger that." Radar said.
Fred climbed up to the top of the obsidian wall, and saw that, sure enough, it was a maze. Looking around, Fred spotted what appeared to be prison a fair distance away.
"Okay, I think I can see a prison over that way." Fred relayed.
"Only problem is, we need to go through this maze." Soren pointed out. "And if Romeo used his powers to build this, it could very well be impossible to navigate through."
"Remember Ivor's maze back in the Far Lands, Soren?" Fred asked. "We just do the same thing here, walk along the top of it. Because I bet you anything, we'll find Jesse and his friends there."
And that's what Fred, Radar and Soren did. After 10 minutes, during which Fred somehow managed to fight and kill a three-headed ghast without his powers, they finally managed to arrive at the prison at the other side of the maze, and that's when Fred saw some conflict happening.
"Got a situation here. Hold up a bit, see what's what." Fred instructed.
(JESSE'S POV)
Jesse, Xara and the rest of his group burst out of the front gates of the prison.
"The opening should be just around this corner." Xara led.
"We have a situation here." Jack pointed out.
Sure enough, the Warden was blocking the entrance to outer maze, threatening the other prisoners with TNT.
"Back! BACK! ALL OF YOU! ONE MORE STEP AND IT'S KABOOMSVILLE!" The Warden warned. "Jesse?"
"Hey, he's wearing an Admin type of armor. Well, the Admin isn't going to boss us around any longer. Therefore, you're getting beat up. A bunch!" A prisoner threatened.
"Jesse! You freed Prisoner X?" The Warden exclaimed, horrified. "Just when I thought your group of friends couldn't ruin my life anymore! What in the world were you THINKING?"
"Holy crud, it's Prisoner X!" A prisoner exclaimed before running off, the rest of the prisoners following, leaving the Warden alone.
"I think you've clearly lost your mind!" The Warden continued. "She is bad news, actually no! She is WAY WORSE THAN BAD NEWS!"
"She doesn't deserve to be locked up! NONE of us do!" Jesse protested.
"Did you know she was once an Admin, too?" The Warden accused. "The Admin had to take her powers away, she tried to destroy him! I promised the Admin, I'd never let her free, no matter what! And I'll keep that promise!"
A dangerous look entered Xara's eyes. She looked ready to kill.
The Warden planted the TNT on the ground.
"EVEN IF I NEED TO BLOW US ALL UP TO DO IT!"
Before anyone could so much as blink, an arrow shot through the air and hit the Warden in the chest, killing him instantly. A prisoner grabbed the flint and steel and TNT that he dropped.
"Later, tater." The Prisoner said.
Jesse looked over and saw Xara holding a bow. She was the one who killed the Warden.
"Why are you all staring at me?" She asked. "It's making me uncomfortable."
"Ouch! Poor guy, what a way to go." A voice commented, coming from the entrance to the maze. Looking over, Jesse saw that it was Fred and behind him stood Radar and… Soren?!
"Fred! Radar! You guys made it!" Jesse called out. "And… Soren?!"
"Hello, Jesse." Soren greeted, with a guilty look. Jack gasped.
"Ohmigosh, is that really you? Are you really Soren?" Jack questioned, bouncing up and down. "Like… the leader of the Original Order of the Stone?"
Jesse had to suppress a giggle at the irony, for Jack was reacting the same way towards Soren that Petra did towards Jack.
"Indeed I am." Soren confirmed. "And you are?"
"The-The um, the stab- the, uh…nobody, really. I'm Jack." Jack stammered.
"So, I see you managed to get out of the prison." Fred observed. "Nice work."
But what got Jesse's attention was Xara standing there, with her mouth wide open.
"Fr-Fred?" Xara stammered. Fred turned to see who had called out his name, and his eyes went as wide as saucers when he saw who it was.
"Xara…. XARA!" Fred cried.
And they embraced, Fred lifting Xara slightly off the ground due to his heavily built stature.
"Xara, what do you have to say for yourself!?"
"What do you mean?" Xara questioned.
"My instructions were simple! If Romeo showed any signs of hostility, you were to leave, get to our old cabin, and find the book which had the word of passage written on it!" Fred scolded. "Not attempt to fight Romeo and have your powers taken away!"
"I-I thought you were dead!" Xara exclaimed. "I had to avenge you!"
"I almost was." Fred answered. "And I'm very sorry. So terribly sorry for having to make you think I was dead, but I couldn't let Romeo believe I was still alive."
"Wait, that's the Xara that you told us about in your life story?" Petra questioned.
"Yep." Fred answered. "Man, am I glad to see that you're still alive."
"Friends reunited, it's a prison miracle!" Radar commented.
"Ahem, sorry to break up the reunion and all, but escaping?" Lukas pointed out.
"Right, this way!" Fred said, before climbing back to the top of the maze. Xara, Jesse and the others following.
I'm, I'm sorry, Jesse. But do you really trust her?" Jack asked as they reached the top of the maze. "Sure, we can trust Fred. But Xara, she's not right in the head."
"Jack, I know you have your doubts, but trust me. I've seen Romeo do some things that would horrify even PAMA. I've seen what Romeo has done to Beacontown." Fred answered. "We need to get my weapon to take his powers away, and we need to get as much help as we can along the way."
"But her? Really?"
"Trust me, I've known Xara a lot longer than you guys have, and she is definitely someone you want to have on your side when fighting Romeo." Fred insisted.
Fred continued to lead the others on, until Xara spotted a building in the distance.
"What do you know, there it is." Xara pointed.
Fred helped everyone up, and they managed to reach the building in the distance. Jesse saw that it was made of diamond.
"That is… sparkly." Radar commented.
"The sparkliest." Jack agreed.
"Is that… diamond." Petra questioned.
"Yeah, I think that is." Lukas responded.
"COME ON, GUYS! LET'S GO!" Fred shouted.
"Okay, we're coming."
They began to move towards the building again.
"I'm not a very trusting person." Xara said to Jesse. "Romeo betrayed me, and right now the only person who I trust completely is Fred. I'm not much of a 'people person' anymore. If I ever really was, it's gone now."
"You're welcome Xara." Jesse responded.
They arrived at the building.
"Uh, where's the rest of it?" Jack asked.
"The rest of what?" Fred inquired.
"The building." Petra replied. "How are we supposed to escape? This doesn't even go up that far!"
"That's because we're not going up. We're going down." Fred responded. "You might have noticed, Xara doesn't have her powers. Well, down there, lies the weapon I build to take Romeo's powers away from him. I built it a long time ago, unfortunately, I never had the chance to use it. Not until now. Also, there are some people down there that I really need to do some catching up with."
Mobs were closing in on them.
"Now there's a good reason to get a move on." Jesse said, before jumping into hole. Fred, Xara and the others following.
Author's Notes: Yes, I know Episode 3 was a bit short, but I had skipped about half the episode. Episode 4 will be back to the usual 4 to 5 chapter standard.
So, yeah. Fred and Xara have reunited. Not much else to say here.
Like it? Review. Don't like it, look up another story.
More to follow.
