"Soren!" Ellegaard exclaimed. "There he is. Soren's fortress was pretty deep inside the mountains. After the Order... broke up-"

Jesse felt like Magnus carefully avoided Ellegaard's gaze on the words 'broke up'.

"That's where he went to keep doing his experiments."

"Look," Magnus spoke up, "he invited me a couple times but it always seemed a bit..."

"Weird, right?" Ellegaard finished, "it always seemed a bit weird."

Magnus nodded. "Glad we can agree on that at any rate," he mumbled.

"Then, let's stop hanging around here and go get that super TNT!" Jesse exclaimed, interrupting their conversation.

Abruptly, another light flickered on, this one dark blue, the same shade as the gem in the center of the amulet.

Their eyes widened.

"Whoa..." Ellegaard said, a bit taken aback. The blue light was moving towards the white light.

"It didn't do that before," Olivia said, frowning.

"Is it working?"

Jesse squinted at it, before her eyes widened. "Oh crap," she cried, "that's Ivor!"

Everyone's head snapped to look at the map, "the part on the amulet that lights up is the same as the thing on Ivor's belt!"

"Holy crap, you're right!" Petra agreed.

"Ivor's going to Soren's!" Ellegaard stared at the map, "we need to move."

Jesse touched her lip, squinting a little bit. "Hmm... I don't think we're too far. We could probably make it on foot."

"Perfect," and Ellegaard put her hands on her hips, "we can wait until morning and travel with a full day's sunlight-"

"No." Petra cut her off, making everyone glance at her. She had a freaked out look on her face, fists clenching and eyes widening. "No. We are NOT letting that Witherstorm catching up with us."

"Yeah, I think I've had enough for one day," Magnus agreed.

Ellegaard pinched her lips together. "Right, because getting caught in the dark is so much better."

"Why are we worried about monsters? We ARE monsters, most of us anyway. We would probably be fine," Jesse pointed out.

Everyone glanced at each other tentatively. "Never thought of that," Lukas hummed thoughtfully.

"Yeah, let's- let's go now. I don't want that thing catching up to us," Jesse shuddered.

"Jesse here's talkin' a lot of sense. Let's just go with that plan."

Ellegaard rolled her eyes at the man next to her. "You're just saying that because it's your plan, but fine."


They'd started walking through the woods, and so far everything was quiet. Jesse didn't dare say so out loud, though- she always jinxed herself when she did.

"Jesse, right?"

Jesse started a bit as Ellegaard came up next to her. "Oh, hi."

"We haven't had the chance to acquaint ourselves properly," Ellegaard responded, "well, seeing as... you don't remember anything from the lab, right?"

Jesse had to think about that. "Bits and flashes, but nothing concrete yet. Yeah, I don't."

"Ah. I heard you saved Petra from the Witherstorm. Sounds like you're pretty impressive."

"Thanks, but I just..." Jesse looked back at everyone. Lukas was standing next to Olivia, and Axel on the other side, Axel having just made a really bad joke that Olivia was rolling her eyes at and Lukas was smirking a bit. Magnus was nodding too. "... I just want everyone to be safe."

"I can always appreciate humility. I like you," Ellegaard stated, making Jesse blink, "In any case, I sort of wish you'd taken my side earlier, but... water under the bridge and all that."

Reuben gravitated to the front, everyone chatting a little ways behind them.

"Yeah... anyway," Jesse said, quashing down her curiousity- no need to tick off a very powerful Order of the Stone member- "you and Olivia seem to get along pretty well."

"Yes, she's very nice," and Ellegaard shot a warm smile back at Olivia, who grinned back. "She really hasn't changed much since your days at the lab."

Jesse had to think about that for a minute. "... she used to be more of a prankster," she thought, "I think I remember that much about her back then. But, I might be wrong, so, you can take that with a grain of salt."

"Mm, I see. Incidentally, why didn't you listen to her plan to come and recruit me? Not to make it awkward or anything. Or to demand why did you want to recruit me?" Ellegaard gave a laugh that seemed rather awkward.

Jesse shrugged. "Nothing against you- it's just Olivia's pretty good at building, so I thought it'd be better for her to fortify the walls and stuff. Besides, you see how Axel and Lukas get along- if I'd left those two together there's a fair chance the temple would've been demolished by the time we got back, especially with Axel's being half-creeper and tending towards the griefer side of things."

Ellegaard snorted a little bit, covering her mouth when Jesse looked back at her. "Yes, he does seem rather like Magnus. And Magnus DOES know how to blow things up with reckless abandon, that's for sure. I'll do my best not to let it hurt my feelings." She chuckled, "joke. That was a joke."

Suddenly a sound. Everyone turned to see monsters approaching them. Thousands of them.

Although most of them seemed more curious than angry. Jesse casually stepped in front of Ellegaard, and the five hybrids surrounded the two Order of the Stone members protectively.

"See, this is why I said we should go in the morning," Ellegaard hissed.

"I'd rather deal with these small fries than the big one," Magnus whispered back.

A creeper wandered dangerously close to the group as they walked slowly through the monsters. "Don't look don't look don't look," Olivia chanted, looking as though she were holding her breath.

The creeper went up to Axel, who gulped but otherwise didn't do anything, staring into the creeper's empty eyes. The creeper then wandered away when Lukas started passing it.

More spiders began to drop from the trees, but just tilted their heads curiously.

So, walking silently while holding their breaths, they all managed to make it to Soren's fortress without getting their heads taken off. That was... pretty good.

Although, it had been ever so close.

A/N: And another chapter has been finished!

Does anyone know why the reviews section has been bugging out?

x.X. A.L. X.x