They were all about to leave, when Jesse stalled midstride. "Oh! Sorry, hang on, I've been wanting to ask something for a bit."

All of them shared a look, before Olivia nodded and waved her hand slightly. "Shoot."

"Petra, Gabriel, how are you... normal?" Jesse vaguely gestured at them, hoping that they didn't take offense at the question or anything. "Shouldn't Gabriel not even remember who he is and Petra be dying of Wither Sickness?"

"Milk."

Jesse blinked at that very much out-of-the-blue, one-word statement. "What?"

Petra sighed a bit at the prospect of further explaining it. "Wither Sickness can be healed by milk. Ivor managed, by using a little bit of milk and a healing potion, to make a potion that pretty much got rid of the Wither Sickness," she responded pretty flatly.

"... oh." Well, what else did you expect Jesse to say to that?

"Yeah. Now is that it? Or can I leave now?" Her brow creased a bit with irritation. Jesse felt like it wouldn't be exactly the best course of action to keep pressing Petra, so she nodded and gestured vaguely at the redhead. "Sure. Sorry," she added as an afterthought.

Petra's scowl lightened a bit, and after a vague shrug, she tramped out of the room.

"We let Gabriel try to recover as many of his own memories as we could," Magnus picked up, making the black-haired girl swivel to look at the Rogue. "He developed his own personality as we let him recover them... so..." he looked at the warrior, who arched his eyebrow at Magnus, before vaguely gesturing at him. "Yeah."

Jesse blinked at the Warrior, who arched his eyebrow slightly at Jesse, a faint sort of odd smile on his face. "Oh. That makes sense, I guess."

"If you're going to ask a question," and Jesse looked to Lukas, whose brow was creased slightly. "Then may I ask one as well?"

He spoke in a vaguely polite voice. It still sounded a little chilly, but Jesse could handle whatever he threw at her... well, at least, she was pretty sure she could.

"Sure, go ahead," she said, wondering what he was going to ask.

Lukas jerked his head slightly, eyes narrowing at the black-haired girl. "Why do you look so wary when it comes to Reuben? This one, I mean."

Jesse went still, her mind racing as her green eyes widened.

Did she really want to explain that?

... not really.

To explain that would be to talk about her Reuben. Her Reuben.

It would also be to explain how his death had been her fault.

"Th... that's..."

Lukas arched his eyebrow, waiting for the girl to finish the sentence.

"I'd prefer not to talk about it," Jesse said, her voice growing quieter and rather soft and small and scared.

"Why not? If we answered your questions, you are almost obligated to answer ours," Lukas shot back. The fact that he was right didn't make Jesse want to tell him any more.

"It's personal..." Jesse was doing her best not to glance in Reuben's direction.

Lukas stepped towards her, the girl who'd already been stressed and terrified and confused today to the point where those emotions still bubbled dangerously close to the surface. "So is asking about Wither Sickness and amnesia about people you don't really know from where you come from. So why can't we do something similar, when it involves our Reuben?"

"Th-that's..." Jesse's chest was starting to hurt. Her vision was starting to blur, and those emotions were getting even closer to the surface, reaching almost boiling point, like a kettle that's been left on the stove for far too long.

"What could be so bad that you're actively trying to protect him from coming with us? It's not like he can't handle himself or anything; he's a pretty tough one-"

Her emotions exploded.

"HE FUCKING DIED!"

Lukas actually jumped back several inches, recoiling as Jesse's voice echoed throughout the room, everyone staring at the black-haired girl, who looked almost deranged in that moment as she stood there, fists clenched at her sides, nails digging painfully into her palms, trembling like a leaf.

"He came with me into the Witherstorm, and then I dropped this stupid fucking sword," and she was starting to hyperventilate rather violently now, "and then Reuben got it for me, and then he got higher up, and then he slipped because I couldn't fucking help him in time, and then he fucking died!" Her voice, which had been rising in pitch and volume with every word she spoke, grated against their ears in a terrible shriek, eyes gleaming with tears.

She was silent for a full minute, trying to get herself under control and failing miserably. When she spoke again, her teeth were clenched together so tightly she was surprised her teeth didn't break under the pressure. "Do you know what it's like to see him again and know that I'm going to have to fucking leave him here? The least I can do," and she spun on her heel, trying to keep the tears under control and failing as they poured down her cheeks, "is make sure that he won't die again!"

There was a shocked sort of silence in the room as Jesse stalked to the door, hand strangling the doorknob. "I'll see you in the morning. I-" Voice cracked. It took her a minute to regain her composure. "I'll see you in the morning."

She didn't really mean to slam the door, but when she shut it she realized that it would be what one would effectively call 'slamming the door'.

She wasn't sure that she really cared.

A/N: ... this slightly shorter than usual chapter stemmed from me just mainly trying to answer NoItsBecky's question. And then it snowballed, and we get this emotional mess.

rebekahtpe: Yep. Creative arts.

NoItsBecky: Your question has been answered. You also got this emotional mess of a chapter xD

RapidSammi: Eyyy thanks

x.X. A.L. X.x.