The days following the defeat of the Wither Storm were a mess, to say the least.
And normally, Axel didn't mind messes. Causing a bit of chaos now and again was something that kept life interesting, even if it normally came at the cost of lectures from Olivia and Jesse. But lately, Axel had been learning that there were two kinds of chaos in life. You had the fun kind, and then you had the kind that left things in shattered pieces.
Destruction is easy. Rebuilding is hard. Being a griefer, Axel knew this better than anyone. Blowing up the ruins of what used to be Soren's hidden temple? Fun. Gathering the materials once they had been lodged free due to the TNT and hoisting them back to their makeshift town? Not as much. But as much as Axel had always hated cleaning throughout his life, it was what needed to be done in the end. He wouldn't argue with that.
But that law of life didn't just apply to the shambles of what were once buildings. People could be destroyed too. Even though people were made of stronger stuff than obsidian, when they fell, they fell hard, and it would never be easy to put them back together.
In those brief moments after the Wither Storm's end, Axel had watched Jesse be destroyed.
And he hadn't been able to do a single thing to stop it.
All he could do was stick around her as she desperately tried to build walls around herself. However, those walls were flimsy, and little things were more than enough to topple the blocks over. Sometimes it was watching a group of people sharing a ration of carrots, other times it was a passive mob of wild pigs trotting along in the forest surrounding the group of small stone cottages. There were times when Axel couldn't pinpoint the catalyst, but nonetheless something had knocked a block off, and he could see his friend's eyes become watery as she excused herself.
Whenever it occured, Jesse always seemed to go to a spot where none of her friends could find her. She would return a short time later, with a fake smile and an excuse of needing to get some water before trying to return to whatever task they'd been doing previously. No one bought it, but no one had the courage to say anything either.
Until today, in the early morning, when Axel and Olivia once again lost sight of Jesse as everyone was receiving a ration of food, gathered days prior, for breakfast. The two split up to search for her, wanting to make sure she was at least still eating. It didn't take long for the griefer to find his friend in the spot where he searched first.
A memorial for Reuben had been one of the first things Jesse committed herself to building, and it was reaching its final stages of completion, with the quartz base and pillars made from polished Diorite. It was on top of the structure where he spotted her.
Axel breathed in, before calling up to her, "Jesse?"
She yelped in surprise, as she quickly turned around, her hands moving to hide themselves behind her back. The moment the two of them locked eyes, Jesse gave him a smile that looked ready to tremble at the drop of a hat, "Axel! Hey, what's…" She swallowed to keep her smile, "What's up?"
"Couldn't find you at breakfast," Axel said. "You should eat something."
"I'm okay. I ate some bread on my way over here."
"Right," Axel kept his focus on her hidden hands, "so, whatcha doing up there?"
"Nothing!" She said. Slowly, her hands drew themselves back into view, her left holding a chunk of flint while the right tightly gripped a piece of steel. She took a small step to the side, revealing the quartz torch that had been placed atop of the memorial, it was noticeably missing a flickering fire, "The flame went out. I was just re-lighting it."
Jesse turned away from her friend once more, giving the steel a quick scrape against the flint. Tiny sparks leapt off the chunk, but no flame sprouted, "But it won't light up for some reason."
Axel moved slowly towards the monument, noticing a temporary staircase made up of dirt blocks Jesse had created in front of the structure.
"Didn't it rain last night?" Axel said, his words moving forced and slow. "The wood's probably too wet."
"Oh."
Axel took a step onto the first dirt block, "Yeah, sorry Jesse. How about we find that Nether portal? We can grab a piece of Netherrack and bring it back here. That stuff stays on fire for a long time." He paused before adding, "Maybe fight a few zombies on the way?"
"No, it's fine," Jesse said, refusing to look at him. "I can light this."
He reached the second step, "It won't work like that, Jesse."
She ignored him and continued her fruitless struggle. Flick after flick, she tensed up more with every one, and still no flame would arrive.
"It's fine, I got it."
"Jesse," He started again.
"I got it."
The flicks became faster, more sloppy. The sparks grew scarce.
He stepped onto the quartz surface, "Jesse, come on-,"
"I said I got it!"
"Jesse!"
Crack.
She froze in her movements, watching as the chunk of flint in her hand broke into pieces. The shards only rested in her palm for a brief second before they poofed in a cloud of dust. Jesse let out a frustrated yell, spinning on her heel, she hurled the steel down towards the cobblestone path below the memorial before collapsing to her knees. Her hands clamped up, shielding her eyes away from the world. She cursed under her breath, most of the words were indecipherable, although Axel could make out "stupid" and "useless" while the rest turned into a garbled jumble mixed in with shaky sobs. Jesse stayed there, unmoving. All of her strength, whatever was left of it anyway, was drained out.
With no hesitation, Axel took a final step closer to her, his large hands found themselves a gentle place on his friend's shoulders.
"Come on buddy," He said, helping her to her feet, "Let's go sit somewhere else."
He'd led her to a spot under an oak tree a distance away from town. There, the two of them sat in the shade for what felt like hours. Jesse didn't speak at first, needing to release what remained of her sobs. Axel had gladly offered his arm to cling to, and with no one else around to see, Jesse had accepted it and buried her face into his green sleeve.
Once she had calmed down, Jesse released him, and they began talking again. The conversations started out as quiet, awkward attempts at small talk. They chatted about the construction jobs, about Magnus and Gabriel taking charge of the search parties, and about the sudden new admiration they'd been receiving from complete strangers. (Axel had been enjoying it just a bit more than Jesse, but now wouldn't be the time to bring it up.)
"They're planning a ceremony to thank us," Jesse said, her voice still slightly hoarse from her previous crying.
Axel glanced over at her, "Huh. So that's why they're setting up that rainbow beacon in the middle of town?"
Jesse nodded, "Yep. Gabriel said it's supposed to be a symbol of 'a new beginning' or something like that." She looked straight ahead, eyes now fixed onto the stone cottages standing by the lake in the distance, "He also said I should give a speech."
"Whoever said you had to?" Axel said. "Gabriel's not the boss of you."
"You're right, I don't have to, but," She leaned back further on the tree's trunk, "I think I should. People are scared right now. Nobody knows what's going to happen next. Some people don't even know if they still have a home to go back to. Everyone's just looking for something to guide them. Someone to guide them. They need somebody to stand up on a stage, smile, and tell them that everything's going to be okay. And I think," She trailed off, watching a group of townspeople far away walking by with armloads of blocks and other building tools. "I think they want that someone to be me."
Before Axel could say another word, Jesse was already looking down towards the ground, her voice beginning to shake once more, "But how am I supposed to do that? I can't even light up a stinking torch without turning into a wreck." Jesse trembled, she wrapped her arms around her legs and pulled them closer to her chest, "They need me to be their hero, but…" Her body curled up, as if she was trying to make herself smaller, "I can't do this, Axel."
"Jesse," Axel started to say, "it'll be-,"
He stopped himself. It would be what? Okay? What a lie that would be. Nothing was going to be "okay" and magically make everything better. At least not for a long time. He knew that nothing would ever bring back what they'd lost. Nothing was going to bring back their town, their homes, their forest…
Nothing would bring back the little pig whose presence was only missed more each day.
Axel shut his eyes for a brief moment. He let the air around him brush past, to ease the heaviness he felt just a bit. Then, opening his eyes, he looked back to Jesse, and said the only thing he could.
"It won't hurt like this forever."
Jesse rose her head, looking at him with red puffy eyes.
Axel continued, "When stuff like this happens, it's like getting hit really hard right in your heart. It hurts like the Nether, and it's gonna keep hurting for a long time. It'll probably be a while before you even feel like you're healing. " He folded his arms, leaning back to get a good look at the sky, "But you're gonna heal. And eventually, even though it won't go away forever, it'll be easier. It'll become easier for that pain to heal."
Jesse sniffled, using one hand to wipe at her eye before turning back to Axel, "You're right. I know you're right."
She shuddered, then croaked out. "I just…wish it didn't hurt so much now."
"I know buddy."
Axel raised his free arm, offering it to her once more. But this time, when Jesse moved forward, she flew past his arm and grabbed onto his center, wrapping her arms around his back. Axel didn't even flinch, instead he simply lowered his arms and wrapped them around her, pulling her closer.
"Don't worry, Jess," Axel told her, "you're not doing this alone. We'll be on that stage with you."
Jesse tightened her grip, "Thanks Axel."
People fall hard. They always do, and they're the hardest to rebuild. Axel knew that putting the pieces back together would be the biggest challenge he and his friends would face.
But that only made it worth it even more.