Jesse was nervous. It wasn't new, but it was still evident.

As obvious as it was that she hadn't wanted to at all, she had agreed to the town holding a little ceremony. Apparently, it had been Gabriel's idea, though when they asked him, he wouldn't tell them why. Though, Olivia had a few guesses based on the tidbits of conversation she had overheard between him, Magnus, and Ivor.

Magnus and Axel had returned a few days prior to the end of the week with a handful of people who had helped in Mescue. Needless to say, while everyone had been skeptical of them, the two did a decent job at keeping things on track and getting things taken care of as quickly as possible. And based on what she had heard from the handful of people who had been there, Mescue was looking almost perfectly like it had before.

Axel had been introduced very quickly to Jax, seeing as he had stuck around Jesse since they'd returned with him a few days ago. The only exception to that would at the very moment; they hadn't seen him yet. He had been confused as to who he was, but for some reason held off on asking until Jax and Jesse had headed off to take care of something he'd needed help with.

"Who is he?" Axel had asked her and Petra quietly. "Is he like her boyfriend or something?" This had caused Petra to snort, then try and fail to hold back laughter. Axel had been rather confused by that, and looked almost offended. "What?"

"He's not her boyfriend," Olivia had rolled her eyes at Petra's reaction, "he's her brother. Twin brother."

"Jesse has a brother?" Axel quirked his brow. "Why hasn't she talked about him?"

"She has multiple siblings. And she doesn't talk about them because she's too nervous about us possibly feeling bad about having little fight-prone families, on top of some other stuff she never talked to me about." Olivia had shrugged. Petra's laughter had died off by now, ending with a mild sigh.

"It's not like she had any less fighting growing up than we did. That's how families work," Petra commented lightly. Axel had blinked, then shrugged, and that had been that.

Jesse tugged at her right glove for the millionth time, pulling the edge up like the glove was going to fall off if she didn't. Olivia still questioned exactly why she had agreed to this if she knew just how much she hated crowds, but every time she tried to ask so far had ended in either no response, or someone cutting Jesse off. So she had, more or less, given up on asking at this point.

"Hey," she placed a hand on Jesse's shoulder, pulling her attention from her glove, "it's gonna be fine. This is no harder than saving the world, I'd assume."

Jesse smiled slightly, but it quickly faltered as she tugged on her other glove. "I-I guess." She didn't sound too confident in the assurance, but Olivia wasn't expecting her to. "They're two different things though."

"Still doesn't mean I'm wrong." Olivia shrugged, allowing her hand to slip off of Jesse's shoulder. "If you have to give a speech, it doesn't have to be long. 'Sides, no one can make you give one, anyways."

Jesse hummed softly and tugged harder on her glove. Maybe that wasn't the best thing to say.

"Jesse." Olivia gently pulled the other's hand away from her glove. "You're gonna be fine. We're gonna be up there with you the whole time."

"I-I know, I just-" Jesse struggled to muffle a sigh. "I hate crowds. A-and speeches." She paused a moment. "A-and just about everything else th-that goes with this."

"Why did you agree to it?" Axel joined in, carefully approaching to stand just behind Olivia.

Jesse shrugged. "I-it's supposed to be a memorial… I-I wanted to give him a proper one."

So that was it. Jesse had been struggling for the past week with the knowledge that Reuben was gone. She couldn't blame her, for that or for wanting to give him something like this. He deserved it, and everyone knew it. She hadn't heard the term "stupid" coupled with "pig" all week.

That, of course, didn't mean that they could have done something else for him; it didn't need to be this social.

"You know we could have given him a different memorial. You didn't have to just go along with this idea." Petra offered her own words of advice this time, though they were incredibly similar to the ones Olivia was about to give. "He was yours, after all."

Jesse hummed again. This time, it took her a good several seconds to really respond. "Th-this is what felt right, though."

Olivia blinked, then glanced back at the others. None of them knew how to respond to that. They didn't really get a chance to try, though, as Gabriel approached them, already about to speak.

"It seems everyone is ready for us to begin," he said, glancing between them briefly before his gaze rested on Jesse. "Are you ready?"

Jesse took a moment or two to respond, then gave each glove a final tug and nodded lightly. "Yeah."

Gabriel gave a single nod at this, then motioned for them to follow before leading the way towards the main road, where the whole thing was supposed to take place. As they walked, Gabriel spoke over his shoulder to them.

"We plan to begin at the gates, where the memorial is, and then move to the stage in the center of town," he explained. "The whole thing should not take much more than twenty minutes at most. It will likely be shorter than that."

"That seems really short," Axel commented lightly, eliciting a shrug from the warrior ahead of them.

"That is how it works."

"I'm not complaining," Olivia swore she heard Jesse mutter under her breath. And if that was the case, she wouldn't be surprised. She shrugged her response, and they rounded a corner to enter the main road.

Almost instantly, the crowd of people they should have expected but didn't let out an excited, ear-splitting cheer, causing them to flinch back from the sudden loud noise. Jesse very briefly looked about ready to book it away from there, but that faded pretty quickly, and they continued through the gap in the crowd towards the memorial that had been finished the day before.

Olivia, Lukas, and Petra had been in charge of that project, seeing as Axel was busy elsewhere and it was meant to be a surprise for Jesse. It hadn't taken long to complete, luckily, and they were about to throw some sort of drape over it to hide it when Jesse happened to walk by early.

So the surprise had been let out early; it didn't make it any less of a surprise.

They silently approached the memorial, fanning out around it. Magnus and Ivor were already standing nearby, Magnus giving a mildly sympathetic glance towards Jesse as she examined the quartz staircase at the base of the memorial. Gabriel turned to the still-cheering crowd, lifting his hands and motioning for them to quiet down.

"Please, please!" The crowd quickly fell quiet, watching him respectfully. "Before we begin, it only seems right to…" He hesitated a moment, hands faltering. "To take a moment of silence for those who were lost."

For a moment, Olivia had nearly forgotten that they weren't the only ones who had lost a close friend. Ellegaard had been a good friend of Gabriel's, as well as Magnus' and Ivor's. Gabriel hadn't been there when she had died, and didn't remember who she was when they were still freshly mourning. He hadn't been there for any of it. Which was why he kept faltering.

Gabriel turned away from the crowd, so Olivia turned her attention to the memorial again.

It was almost entirely made of polished diorite, with quartz embellishments at the top and bottom. There was a sort of quartz torch at the top, a lit piece of netherrack in the middle of it. There were banners on the side of the memorial facing them, bearing a teal-to-gray gradient with a picture of Reuben's face and black patterns above and below it. A plaque with the name "Reuben" in all capitals was underneath it, and a small row of flowers and small bushes sat at the base of the thing as a sort of little garden.

Lukas had been the one to design it, and honestly, Olivia thought that he had done a great job.

She lowered her gaze to the garden at the base. It was surreal, though she had grown used to it; Reuben was gone. He wasn't going to come back. She wasn't nearly as close to him as Jesse had been- she didn't think anyone was- but it still hurt. She hadn't treated him quite the way she had wanted, admittedly, but she supposed that it wasn't inherently bad. She just wished she could change some things is all.

That was how this worked. You don't realize what you could have done better until you don't get the chance to change. No matter how much you hated it, or wanted it to be different, it wasn't going to change. She'd just have to live with it.

Hopefully, that would be easier than it seemed at that moment.

She was pulled from her thoughts when Jesse's hand moved to rub at her face, which was hidden behind her hair. She watched her a moment, carefully debating on whether she should try to comfort her or let her have her moment to grieve, but didn't get a chance to decide before Axel stepped past her. Jesse glanced up at him when he placed his hand on her shoulder, then took a deep breath. Olivia shot her an encouraging smile when their gazes met, before Jesse turned to face the crowd.

The crowd immediately erupted in cheers again, and Olivia saw Jesse hold down a flinch from the edge of her vision. Despite it, Jesse took a second to stand there, then she started towards the stage at the other end of the crowd. Olivia followed her down the small steps to the road, following the walkway the crowd made and carefully keeping towards the middle of the gap. She bumped into Axel a time or two as a result.

She carefully moved up onto the stage after Jesse and Axel; she and Petra stood just in front of Axel off to one side, while Gabriel, Magnus, and Ivor stood in a short line on the other side of the stage. Jesse and Gabriel were in the middle of the stage, looking out at the crowd.

Sure enough, there were a number of people she recognized scattered in the mass of people. She noted Jax, front and center, filling in the pathway with a number of others. A couple of people she swore she'd seen in Redstonia were there, as well as a couple of people she'd seen around EnderCon. She recognized the lady from the slime booth towards the middle of the mass, as well as the older man who had been building a TNT machine back in Redstonia. She also noted a woman in the front who, guessing by the gunpowder and ash still caked into her hair and the number of burn scars on her arms, was likely from Boom Town. Jesse shot a brief glance to the side, and Olivia followed it to spot Lukas standing at the edge of the crowd, the other Ocelots behind him. He shot Jesse a small grin and a nod, and the brunette returned it, before looking at the crowd again.

"People used to look at me like that once, Jesse." She barely heard Gabriel mutter to Jesse over the cheering. "Having my memory restored has been both a blessing… and a curse." Gabriel leaned a bit closer to Jesse and muttered something too quietly for her to hear. She turned her attention to the crowd again, smiling briefly as someone waved frantically in the back.

"This is kinda exciting." She turned to glance at Petra, who was grinning as she spoke. "I didn't think having this much attention on you could be exciting, honestly, but it is."

"I guess." Olivia shrugged. "I'm not that much of a fan. But I guess it's kind of interesting. I'm just not used to it."

"I'm not either." The redhead returned the shrug mildly. "I'm just saying I can see why some people don't mind this."

Olivia was about to respond, but was cut off when Gabriel stepped forwards and lifted his crowd's cheering died off quickly, and his hands lowered as he started to speak.

"We owe a great debt to Jesse and her friends," he started. "But I owe a debt to you people as well. Which is why… There is something I want to tell you. About the Order."

Olivia blinked in surprise. Was he actually going to tell them? She caught sight of Ivor nodding ever so slightly.

"The Order of the Stone… is not what you all believed." So he was going to tell them. "We were… frauds. We used the Command Block to falsify our legacy." He was interrupted almost instantly by a collective gasp from the audience, several of the members of it going wide eyed and several more scowling. Gabriel glanced at Ivor, who nodded lightly, and Magnus' head drooped. Gabriel sighed, turning to the crowd again. "We were no heroes."

Mutters erupted from the crowd, and Gabriel lowered his gaze to the base of the stage. Jesse spared a glance back at them, and it was evident on her face that she felt bad; Olivia's best guess as to why was because she had told him to tell the truth.

"So it is time for the world to celebrate new heroes," Gabriel continued, causing the muttering to die off. "Real heroes." He glanced back at them as he spoke, and Olivia automatically straightened slightly. He turned to the crowd again, but the crowd didn't react to it as any of them had hoped. Silence emanated from them. After a few seconds, Gabriel slumped slightly; Jesse glanced at them again, then carefully stepped forwards and placed a tentative hand on his shoulder. He glanced at her briefly, then at Ivor and Magnus, before the three stepped off of the stage, leaving Jesse in the center of the stage.

The second they were off the stage, the crowd erupted again into cheering. Olivia swore she saw Gabriel flinch, but he quickly hid it as he turned to face the stage, clapping lightly with the rest of the crowd. Jesse quickly tried to motion for them to quiet down, but it took a couple of moments for it to actually work.

She started to try and speak, but nothing came out. Jesse faltered, hands hovering in front of her as she glanced back at them. Petra nodded lightly, and Olivia offered a double-thumbs up and a grin. She didn't see if Axel reacted, but she assumed he sent an encouraging grin or something her way as well. Jesse swallowed, then shakily turned back to the crowd.

"I-I, um…" Jesse took a deep breath, carefully letting it out before starting again. "I-I know you, um, think I'm up here because I saved the world, o-or something…" A couple of people cracked grins at that. "B-but the truth is, I didn't do it alone." She glanced back at them, a small smile on her face. "Far from it." She turned to the crowd again, carefully motioning back at them. "You see, I-I had my friends with me." She turned back to them, motioning carefully to each of them as she continued. "There was Olivia, Axel, Petra," she turned and motioned off of the side of the stage, "Lukas…" Jesse turned to the crowd again. "They never gave up. On the world, o-or on me." She glanced back at Olivia, grinning almost mischievously. "Well, uh, maybe once or twice." Olivia snorted as a few giggles sounded from the crowd.

"If they only knew…" She shook her head lightly, and Jesse's grin widened slightly as she turned back to the crowd.

"I-It's kinda crazy t-to think my friends and I started out i-in a treehouse, a-and now we've been to some of the weirdest places in the world." She hesitated, placing a hand to her chin thoughtfully for a moment before lowering it again. "I-I mean, we went to the Far Lands!" There were several gasps and shouts of surprise and excitement, before cheering erupted again. Jesse started to try and describe it, based on the way her hands moved slightly, before she gave up on it. "I-I would, um, try to describe it, b-but there's no real good way to do it. Y-you just had to be there, I-I guess." She took another, slightly shaky breath. "B-but… When it was all said and done, what really mattered was-"

She cut off, fist clenching as her hands started to tremble slightly. Olivia blinked, turning too share a concerned glance with Petra, before carefully stepping forwards and placing a hand on Jesse's arm. Jesse glanced back at her shakily.

"It's okay," Olivia smiled lightly. "You're doing great." Jesse blinked at her, then took a deep breath, and turned back to the crowd.

"The… The most important thing at the end of the day w-was finishing what we had set out to do." Olivia nodded slightly as she pulled her hand away and stepped back into place. "Th-there was no way we were gonna let a place like this get torn apart!" The crowd cheered at that, causing Jesse to grin lightly. "A-and, well… I-if it weren't for everyone who helped me a-along the way, it wouldn't have been possible, s-so…" She turned and glanced back at them again, smiling wider. "Thanks."

The crowd erupted once again into cheers. Olivia turned to share a grin with Axel, then with Petra, before her attention was pulled to the center of the stage again as Magnus made his way up again, some odd, purple thing hovering in his hands.

"Jesse," he took on an announcer voice as he stopped in front of her, causing her to turn and face him, "this is the Nether Star that dropped when the Wither Storm was destroyed." He held out his hands, and she carefully took the Nether Star from him. He grinned and motioned to the large mass behind them, his voice reverting to normal. "You wanna do the honors?"

Jesse glanced at it, examining one of the beacons carefully, before climbing up to the center of it. Olivia could see a dark blue hunk of glass at the top, which Jesse examined carefully for a moment, before gently placing the Nether Star onto the glass. It started spinning, going faster and faster until it looked like a purple orb.

"This is gonna be so cool…" Olivia barely heard Lukas.

Suddenly, pillars of light of different colors shot out of the beacons, each beam color corresponding with the color of glass on top of them. they formed a pattern similar to the Order's amulet, with red, green, cyan, and white coming out of each of the side stripes, and dark indigo coming out of the center. The colors corresponded with the amulet's perfectly.

"Whoa!" Jesse took a step back, seemingly excited by the light show. Olivia grinned excitedly as well.

"My friends!" Her attention was pulled back to the center of the stage, where Gabriel was standing straight, and held the amulet up above his head. She blinked in surprise, sharing a glance with Axel. "I am now pleased to introduce to you…" He turned, gently pushing past Olivia to hold the amulet out to Jesse. She carefully took ahold of it, confusion evident on her face. Gabriel turned around once she had a grip on it. "The New Order of the Stone!"

Jesse straightened at this, eyes widening. Olivia's eyes widened as well, before a small, excited smile pushed it's way onto her face. The crowd cheered, some excitedly bouncing in place. Jax had a huge grin on his face as he watched Jesse carefully hop back down to the stage. Lukas was grinning excitedly too; Magnus and Ivor were clapping along with the crowd. Olivia shared a grin with Jesse as she moved to the center of the stage.

And just like that, everything was officially over. Their lives had changed, but that was okay.

They were in this together.


AN: aaaand that's that! Withered is officially finished! there's gonna be a sequel, but y'all gotta wait a bit for me to do school things and actually write the thing and make a cover and think of a title and all

thanks for reading!

until next time!