Act V – Chapter 22

Trigger Warning: This chapter contains swearing and major character death. Reader discretion is advised.

(Minecraft: Story Mode and its characters belong to Telltale Games, not me.)

There is a key difference between a good friend and a bad one.

Good friends do what you ask, they appreciate what you do for them. They never betray you.

Jesse is a perfect example of what we call a good friend. Other good friends include, in no particular order… Fred and Soren. Basically, all decent people who refuse to let prejudice control them and force them to abandon someone in their darkest hour.

Now Xara on the other hand, she is the perfect example of someone who I don't stand for. Evil, cunning and a sadistic bitch to boot.

Oh, but then, THEN… as if what she done to me and Sourcemist wasn't enough, I find out she had been orchestrating the rift between me and Fred from the start?! ARGH!

But that was also when luck finally came my way. We found the one thing that can potentially turn the tides, and see Xara defeated once and for all…

…The Debug Stick.

This is it, I cannot believe this is it! After all those years of suffering inside the Ironguard Detention Facility, after all those dreams of getting revenge on that sadistic bitch. I cannot believe this is finally happening.

And now poor Xara is doomed, and is about to learn a valuable lesson in why she shouldn't have screwed with me.

The saddest part of all, though, is that Fred… poor Fred never found out about Xara's true colors until it was too late. Neither of us did. And now he will never get to see me take down Xara for good.

But, at least he, the other one, had the courage to cut all his ties and leave us… before he got roped into this mess. Fuck, I still miss him though.

Jesse sat up, and saw the bright flash fade, leaving behind nothing but a huge smouldering wreck…

She opened her mouth, trying to scream even though no sound left her. Romeo motioned for her to stay there, standing up to get a better look.

Sure enough, Xara was there, floating above the now-destroyed walls… and holding someone up next to her, before dropping them into a horde of chipped zombies.

"S-she.. sh-she.." Romeo stammered, unable to form words as his hands balled into fists. He turned around, and seeing a hologram of Xara appear right between him and Jesse, he saw red.

"You… fucking… BITCH!" he roared.

"Now, now, is that any way to speak to an old friend, Romey?" Xara taunted.

"Y-you!" With a scream, Romeo launched forward and attempted to charge tackle Xara, forgetting in his blind rage that she was a hologram, and phased right through her, landing on Jesse.

"You can't hit light, dummy!" taunted Xara, bursting into her shrill laughter. Jesse grabbed Romeo's shoulder with her remaining hand and pushed him off of her.

"Get… off… me!" Jesse groaned, getting up and drawing her sword again. "Where the fuck is the real you? Where are you hiding?!" She growled, prompting Romeo to raise an eyebrow towards her. When'd she start picking up on his… vocabulary?

"I warned you, Jesse!" she said in a sing-song voice. "I warned you that if you tried to escape again, it would result in unpleasantness!"

"I…" She glared at the hologram, and froze as she stared through it out towards the ruins of her city. Her Beacontown, once thriving and wonderful, gone. Reduced to atoms. Xara's previous warning rang out through her mind, and fear began to race through her body.

What had she done?

"See what happens when you don't listen, Jesse?" Xara giggled, placing a holographic hand on Jesse's right shoulder. "You lose your hand, you get lost in the Nether… and you lose the city you held so very close to your heart."

Jesse's eyes began to tear up… "N-no…"

"And the best part? You lose your friends too. Axel, Olivia, Lukas, Petra… all dead, because of you," she said in a sickly sweet voice. "Isn't that funny? Isn't that… just so like your pitiful life? You go on and on about protecting your friends, and yet you just let them die for you. Not to mention all of your townspeople too. Want me to go over the list of names?"

"...No," Jesse shook her head. "No, fuck that. Fuck you! I know my friends better than anyone else. You might've blown up my town, but my friends? There's no way you actually managed to kill them."

She couldn't have...

Xara took a step back, curiosity cracking through her sweet and smiley exterior. "Oooh, such language..." she giggled. "I must admit, to be so openly in denial about the truth before you… it is a fascinating look at you. Not the surface-level, cheery-but-nervous Jesse… but the true, terrified, always-afraid-of-being-inferior Jesse.

"Shouldn't you be glad they're gone? Now that you're finally the best, by default? You could never handle redstone with Olivia's finesse, or cause quite as much griefer havoc as Axel. And Lukas, your precious, charming, perfect Lukas? He never held you in the same regard as you held him… not even close. And let's be honest, if you and Petra ended up in a sword fight? She'd have run you through at least ten times over."

Tears were streaming down Jesse's face. She couldn't move, she couldn't… think. It was like the weight of the world was on her shoulders, dragging her through the dirt and into the void, even below Ironguard and the Underneath…

"And on top of that, just remember that you could have easily prevented their deaths by listening to me," Xara said, with a giggle. "But no, you had to keep pushing, and pushing, and pushing. And thus, you have nobody but yourself to blame, Jesse Taber."

"You. Leave. Her. Alone!" Romeo growled, stepping forward and cracking his fists. "Oh I'm going to enjoy shutting you up, Xara Stewart!"

"Go ahead, Romey. Try and tackle the hologram again - see where it gets you," She grinned, doing a backflip off of the cliff and vanishing. For a moment, Romeo genuinely considered leaping off after her… before turning around again, seeing Jesse on the ground. Helpless, terrified… alone.

Her eyes were shut tight, tears wetting the dirt around her face as Romeo knelt next to her, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her up into a hug as the others emerged from the portal finally.

"Ha-haaaa, Ivor, you owe me a diamond!" said Magnus, nudging Ivor playfully as Soren and Gabriel scoffed. "You two are no fun."

"Look at them." Soren said, pointing at Romeo and Jesse. "I don't quite think your betting pool is entirely reasonable at the moment, Magnus - and Ivor, don't encourage him!"

"I wasn't!" Ivor protested, groaning. "Gabriel, Soren, could you two at least try to help me keep Magnus in line?"

"All of you, shut the fuck up!" Romeo hissed, giving the four of them an intense death-glare. "Look at her. Look out fucking there!" he growled, pointing at the cliffside. "So how about you shut up with your petty squabbles, and look at what she has fucking done!"

Soren saw what Romeo was pointing at, and gasped in horror upon seeing the mess that Xara had created. Gabriel and Magnus had similar reactions, the three of them falling silent.

Ivor was somehow even quieter than the rest, hands shaking at his sides. "She did this? That… Xara person- the Admin?"

Romeo nodded. "I saw her. She dropped someone to a horde of zombies underneath her."

"The kid?" Magnus asked, not really thinking about it. "He was the only one of us who didn't make it back through the portal, so maybe it's him?"

"...I couldn't see them very clearly, but I'm assuming it was him…"

"We… I need to check on something. Someone," Ivor said, his barely-audible whisper being hard to hear over the deafening silence.

All too quickly, before any of them had processed what he'd said, he had jumped off the cliff, already vanishing into the night.

"Ivor!" Gabriel called out, looking over the ruins and the area below. "Confound it…"

"...Let… let him do his thing. We need… I need to f-find Radar," Jesse mumbled, shakily standing up. It didn't last, though, and she quickly fell back into Romeo's arms.

"It's okay, s'okay," Romeo said in a calm and quiet voice, as he helped Jesse back to her feet, Jesse holding an arm around him for support. "Just lean into me… that's it."

"S-she… she can't have…"

"Either way, we've got company," Soren said, pointing towards chipped mobs that were slowly coming out of the forest lands from around the temple. "We can't stay here, the temple's far too exposed, we need to get out of the open… now."

Running blindly, they managed to get off the cliff that they were on and into the woods below, running towards the billowing smoke coming out of the giant crater that used to be Beacontown.

Dodging chipped mobs, they did not stop until they reached a clearing, having long shook off PAMA's trail, where they saw a cabin on the top of a small hill next to more woods. Jesse immediately recognized it as Lukas' old cabin… Shoving emotional thoughts down, Jesse immediately moved towards the direction that led to Beacontown.

However, somebody had found them first.

"HEY!" screamed a voice from behind them. Turning around, they saw a figure familiar to Jesse appear out of the woods behind them. It was Harper. "Jesse? Oh thank heavens it's you! Follow me, it's not safe out in the open!"

Without question, the group followed Harper as she led them up towards and inside Lukas' cabin. Inside, Jesse froze as she saw the last person she expected to see Harper hiding with...

It was Stella, and next to her was Lluna.

"Harper, what are you… OH!" Stella exclaimed, seeing the group. "H-hi!"

Wow, this was awkward.

"Stella…" Jesse slowly greeted, rubbing her head.

"Jesse."

Wanting to get away from this awkward confrontation, Jesse spun around.

"What are we doing here? We need to go and save my friends," said Jesse, racing for the door.

But as Jesse put a hand on the handle of the cabin door, Romeo pulled her hand away, and placed his right arm on the door, holding it shut.

"I'm sorry, Jesse…"

"GET OUT OF MY WAY!" screamed Jesse.

"No! It's too late!" Romeo said.

Jesse tried desperately to pull the door open, but the former Admin was much stronger than she had anticipated, and would not budge.

"Jesse!" yelled Romeo. "There's nothing you can do! They're… th- they're dead!"

"NO, THEY'RE NOT!" Jesse screamed back. "IT'S JUST ANOTHER ONE OF THE ADMIN'S TRICKS! LET ME GO!"

She did not believe it, she would not believe it. She continued to fight Romeo with every ounce of strength that she still had.

"Beacontown is g-gone, Jesse!" said Romeo, his voice breaking under the pressure of trying to hold the door shut. "There's no way they could've surv-"

"Get out of the way, Romeo!" screamed Jesse. "I have to save them! Move!

"Guys… Soren, help me talk some sense into her!" pleaded Romeo as Jesse continued to try desperately to escape the cabin. Eventually, Jesse's strength slipped and he managed to get her away from the door. Jesse felt anger flare up inside her towards Romeo, how dare he try and insinuate that her friends were dead… when she clearly knew they weren't.

But some part deep-down inside of her knew that Beacontown had been consumed in a massive fireball. If her friends had been inside that… they would have been incinerated immediately… that would only mean one thing… that her friends really were…

No, Jesse refused to think that. They had been through so much, the Wither-Storm, the Old Builders… how can they just be gone like that? The last of Jesse's strength failed her as she crumbled to the ground... eyes wet with tears. No…

"I'm... sorry… Jess," whispered Romeo, his eyes looking at her in pity. Harper was lost for words while Stella simply stood there with a solemn expression on her face. Rivalry or not, nobody deserved this. Soren, Magnus and Gabriel looked on too in pity.

"W-what happened to Jesse's hand?" Harper questioned, finally regaining her voice and breaking the long silence, voice going higher as she eyed it with a look of shock and horror.

"Scavengers!" growled Soren. "Shook us down, sliced her hand clean off and sent us off a cliff!"

Stella gave a gasp of horror, while the noise that came out of Harper's mouth was something akin to screaming. Lluna made a surprised llama noise.

"Jesse?"

Soren had stepped forward, crouching down towards Jesse on the floor.

"I… I'm so sorry, Jesse," he said. "Your friends… I can see how much they meant to you."

Jesse sniffled, shivering slightly. Seeing this, Romeo got an idea and raced off. Coming back, he handed Jesse a leather jacket, which Jesse immediately recognized, with widened eyes.

It… it was Lukas' old Ocelot's jacket… that he wore back when they fought the Wither-Storm.

"I'm sure whoever owned this won't mind," he said.

"I… I can't…" she whispered. "That… that's Lukas' jacket. I can't do it. I can't take that from his memory. I can't! I CAN'T!"

"Okay then, okay…" said Romeo, before digging into his inventory and taking out a red and black striped hoodie. "But Jess, you're freezing… take one of mine instead then."

Jesse, seeing Romeo offer her one of his own jackets like that… hesitantly took it and slid it on. It fit her perfectly, and immediately, she wasn't quite so cold from the fresh surface air anymore.

Meanwhile, Romeo had slipped on Lukas' jacket, along with a pair of fingerless gloves that he had grabbed from Romeoburg along with the jacket he gave to Jesse. Jesse tried to protest, but Romeo raised a gloved hand, shutting her down.

"Look, I'm sure your friend would understand, and I'm sure he would have wanted his memory to be preserved."

Jesse did not respond, instead getting a distant look.

"She… she killed them," she said, after a while... in a quiet but icy cold voice. "She killed them! SHE FUCKING KILLED THEM! I…" she took a breath, staring directly into Romeo's empathetic amber eyes. "She's a fucking monster… I don't know how, I don't know when… but I swear, we will find her, and I will enjoy every look on that stupid face of hers as she gets her just deserts! We… not you, we are going to be the ones to reduce that bitch to absolute nothing."

Romeo took a step back, eyebrow raising as Jesse coldly quoted what he had said back in the cabin. Stella, Magnus and Gabriel looked weary of her while Soren looked as though seeing someone like Jesse fall so low pained him deeply. Harper slowly shook her head.

"Jesse… Je-" she began, only to be interrupted by Jesse holding her left hand up.

"Don't," she snapped. "I don't need your pity!"

"Well, what do we do now?" asked Stella, speaking for the first time since seeing the group.

"We… we need some place to hide…" said Jesse. "What about in the portal network?"

Multiple choruses of 'No!' rang out from everybody except Romeo and Stella.

"Jesse, no!" Soren said. "Don't you remember what Ivor said? He said that PAMA's already begun to take over other worlds, and with Xara on his side, he can teleport mobs everywhere… nowhere is safe!"

"Maybe, but there's a catch though," said Romeo, piping up. "Sure, Xara can teleport mobs everywhere for PAMA, but I remember back in my Admin days, I could not teleport between the Overworld and the Nether. I could still manipulate things from both sides, and even teleport around while in the Nether, but just not teleport between the Nether and the Overworld.

"I'm thinking that this Portal Network, that you're speaking of may also run on this same principle, meaning that…"

"Yes! If we blow up both sides of the exit portal, PAMA can't send any more forces through!" finished Harper, catching onto what Romeo was saying.

As Jesse stood up to add her input, that's when they were interrupted by sounds of teleporting and static.

"Overworld biological scan completed! Threat identified! Hello, Jesse! Hello, Romeo! Long time… no see!" a distant, but loud robotic voice said that Jesse recognized instantly as PAMA.

"Shit! They found us!" exclaimed Romeo.

"We need to go, now!" yelled Harper. "Follow me!"

They exited the house and ran into the woods behind it just as mobs began to swarm it.

"Okay… the exit portal isn't far!" gasped Harper. "This way!"

On the way to the portal, they bumped into Ivor again, who was overjoyed upon seeing that Harper was okay.

"Come on!" yelled Romeo.

Not too much running later, and they found the point where they had built this world's exit portal. Luckily for them, it was already lit, as Jesse did not have the enchanted flint & steel on her.

"Okay! Everybody in!" ordered Romeo, as Soren, Lluna, Stella, Jesse, Gabriel, Ivor and Harper raced in. Giving Magnus a nod, he followed them in, while Magnus slammed a block of TNT down, lighting it before diving in behind them just as it exploded, destroying the portal.

Author's Note: How did I manage to let myself get so dark with this one? I told you this story was going to get dark.

Again, credit to my friend attackatosh for not only proof-reading, but actually helping out with writing this chapter.

Like it? Review. Don't like it, look up another story.

More to follow.