A good portion of the city had been destroyed, except for the canals of water, which were now all flowing into a big hole and off the island, down towards the land. Ghasts were still flying around like nobody's business.
Jesse stared at everything, slightly open-mouthed, before head snapping to her left at Petra's, "Jesse!"
She and Ivor were facing down Gill and Maya, both of whom had also surrendered. Aiden was still staring at Jesse with a slightly open mouth, looking as though he wanted to ask her something, but there was no time as a fireball nearly hit a small crowd of Sky City citizens, the ghast who'd spit it closing in-
Isa spun across in a huge leap, sweeping her swords in a wide arc, knocking the huge white ghast to the ground and making it explode into dust and smoke, before rushing over towards them. "You retrieved the Eversource!"
"Yes, ma'am," Reginald said, holding out Evie, who was clucking as if she didn't have a care in the world.
"Everyone," and Jesse looked over to see Milo leading a good portion of Build Club along towards the rest of the citizens, who were all shaking like leaves in the spot where they were all gathered.
"Jesse, there you are!" Milo shouted, looking relieved.
Isa almost talked over him, green eyes shining with worry. "Jesse, this situation is getting out of hand. We simply can't stop all the monsters AND protect my people. The longer we stay here, the more danger my people will be in!"
Jesse frowned, looking up at the ghasts momentarily, before down at the water rushing along inches from her feet. "The waterfalls, the waterfalls can take us to safety!" Jesse exclaimed, looking back up from the water at the crowd.
"What?!" cried one citizen, "are you crazy?! The waterfalls will just take us to the Void!"
Jesse hesitated, before saying, quietly, looking at Isa, "You're just going to have to trust me."
Isa nodded, looking at the citizens. "Yes, just- do what Jesse does."
Petra let the fire around her die down, her eyes no longer glowing red-hot and putting her sword away, as Jesse took a deep breath and jumped forward into the water.
The cool liquid surrounded her, and she began to swim forward, using her extra arms to propel her forward, before turning around. The other citizens were just sitting and rubbing their heads, Isa looking around at them desperately- before Milo stepped forward and spoke, loudly. "Jesse had done nothing but help us so far! I will show you just how much I believe in Jesse's word!"
And he hopped into the water too.
Isa followed shortly after, Reginald hopping in while still holding Evie. Petra shoved Maya in after Gill and jumped in herself, Ivor hopping into the water with a big grin on his face, Aiden hopping, more and more citizens following them as Ghasts soared overhead, and Jesse turned around.
Her stomach shot into her throat as the miniature river turned into a rather large waterfall, and she let out a yelp as the water sent her plummeting towards, even though she knew there was land. It was like one of those rides that go up and up and up, before suddenly shooting straight down. Jesse'd always liked those.
Jesse felt herself hit the water, going under for a moment, before stroking back up to the surface. Her hair had already gotten soaked from the rain, but now she was pretty sure that she wasn't going to need to go swimming for a long, long, LONG time after this.
Reginald gaped around him, eyes wide as the Eversource bobbed over to the side. "You weren't lying!" he exclaimed, "there's ground everywhere!"
The citizens were all pretty amazed too, gaping around them as if they'd just found the Holy Grail or something.
Isa looked gravely at Jesse. "Jesse, I cannot thank you enough. You have saved us all."
"So what do we do now?" Reginald asked, blinking at Jesse unsurely.
Jesse shrugged, spreading all six of her arms out wide with a big grin. "What do you do? Go have some fun! Night won't be here for hours at least- you were cooped up in there for so long that you should be allowed to do whatever you want! For a while, at least. Then you might wanna worry about making shelter." And she let out a little laugh at that.
Another loud splash, and Jesse looked over to see the Blaze Rods swimming over to the side as well, all of them looking quite worse for wear.
"Freeze, criminals!" shouted some guards, making Aiden stare up fearfully, "you're not going ANYWHERE."
Petra and Ivor, also soaking, came over to Jesse, water pouring off their clothes (and, in Petra's case, steam). Milo looked at Jesse as well, but before anyone could say anything Jesse was tackled by a rather large blonde fluffball. "I knew you'd do it!"
Jesse couldn't say anything for a second, winded by the flying hug, but grinned cheekily at Lukas, who was hugging her around the midriff rather tightly. "For someone who knew I could do it, you're awfully happy to see me."
Lukas grinned back, before seeing Petra and Ivor and pouncing on them, too, squashing the both of them together. Petra gave Ivor a look, but Ivor looked faintly amused. "You're worse than Soren," he joked slightly, "he used to have the most surprising flying tackles of the rest of us combined."
"I'm just speculating here," Petra said, once she'd tolerated the hug and gotten back up, "but I'm guessing those three are having some regrets."
Jesse grimaced slightly. "Man, I bet those guys are in some deep trouble. The Sky City citizens are NOT happy with them."
Lukas smiled a bit evilly, tail twitching and ears twisting around excitedly. "Yeah, hopefully they dig a deep hole, bury them in it, surround it with lava and-"
He cut himself off at the sight of Isa, Reginald, Milo, and Petra gaping at the blonde ocelot hybrid. Ivor was grinning evilly as well, and Jesse was shaking her head with a small, amused, yet sad smile on her face. Obviously Lukas was taking the Blaze Rods' betrayal rather deeply.
Lukas grinned sheepishly, ears flattening against his head. "Sorry. Got a bit carried away there."
The guards were marching the Blaze Rods across the grass, and Aiden glanced up at Jesse, before back down.
Jesse crossed her arms- all of them- with an impassive look on her face. "Aiden."
Aiden was stopped, and the boy looked at the floor, his voice a couple octaves higher than usual. "Oh. Uh, hi, Jesse, I'm..." He hesitated, before saying, "thank you... for saving me up there. When I was... falling. But... uh... b-but why..." he started to ask before deciding not to. "And I'm... I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry to cause all of that trouble. I can see where it all went wrong. I've... uh... got some regrets, to say the least."
Jesse frowned at him slightly. "I hope you learned a lesson, Aiden." Her frown softened. "This really didn't have to go down like this."
"I'd... say you have a lot to think about," Lukas said, a bit coldly.
Aiden winced under his former friend's cold gaze. "Yeah, yeah, that's... that's for sure."
"Try to do something good for these guys, okay?" Jesse asked, and her gaze softened a bit at the sight of her former enemy looking as though he were a kicked puppy. "Maybe, once you've... you know, served some time for what you've done, maybe I- the Founder," she corrected herself, "will let you have a new start."
"Yeah," said Aiden, and he blinked thoughtfully. "Maybe I could become a writer." And then he looked at Jesse. "I won't try to compete with you anymore, Jesse."
Jesse just shrugged at that, and Aiden was led away.
Isa cleared her throat, stepping up onto a bit of raised land. "Hello? Everyone, please? This is your Founder speaking," she spoke, raising her voice, "now that we're all safe, we need to organize. Start planning our new community," she spoke, the citizens of Sky City gathering around her.
Milo shoved his way to the raised bit of ground as well, glaring at the Founder. "Are you listening to yourself? That's insane! We were prisoners long enough on that island in the sky! It's time for us to run free! Build whatever we please!" he exclaimed, loudly.
Petra made a little worried face. "Oh, those two just cannot get along."
"They're talking about two whole different... well, philosophies, almost," Jesse whispered back.
Isa glared at Jesse, who happened to have a front row seat for the whole thing. "Jesse, I cannot allow my people to be influenced by this... naive idealist!" she said sharply.
"Bah!" Milo growled back, "I'm sure I DO look like a naive idealist through the eyes of an oppressive dictator!"
Jesse put her lower arms on her hips and crossed the middle and upper sets. "Both of you, quit it! Fighting isn't going to solve anything!" she reprimanded, sharply.
"It will if I win!" Milo retorted.
"Oh, of course you'd think that way!" Isa snapped back, before scoffing. "You don't understand, it'll be night soon, and that is when the monsters come out! If we don't prepare, we'll be in danger!"
"You're just making excuses to control our behavior, just like before!" Milo rebuked the statement over the gasps of the crowd, "we must trust in ourselves! Be able to learn from our mistakes!"
"Of course the people can build," Isa argued back, "but we need a system! Some rules! Rules aren't bad!"
"Well, I think you're both right," Jesse stated calmly, eyeing both of them before looking at the crowd, "you don't just wanna run around with no plan like a bunch of headless chickens, but you can't schedule and organize everything, either. People do need to be free to try new things, but you gotta be safe about it."
People started cheering at that, and Milo said, a bit grudgingly, "I suppose I still have much to learn... thank you, Jesse."
Isa's brow furrowed a bit. "I don't understand yet, but... I trust you," she said simply. "I suppose the era of Sky City is over."
"We may disagree how to run this place," Milo agreed, both of them hopping down from the blocks of land, "but I thank you for everything you have done."
Isa smiled wryly. "I guarantee that we'll be telling stories about your visit for many, many years to come."
Jesse eyed Isa with a small smile. "Try and play nice with Milo, okay? I know he's a bit crazy, and you aren't always gonna get along, but he really DOES care about the people. Don't waste this chance."
"Yes, I am starting to see that," Isa chuckled softly, looking at Milo with her dark green eyes, "and I will do my best." And the two of them walked off to go discuss something, Lukas watching Isa for a moment before letting out a little laugh, tail flicking around. "You know something? She was a bit scary at first. But... she's alright."
"I'm gonna miss that crazy guy," Petra said, wistfully, before- "I guess we should prepare for nightfall, too. Without another portal, we're stuck here."
Jesse's eyes widened, and she let out a nervous laugh. "Oh... whoops, I guess with all the fighting and monsters and stuff I kinda forgot to mention... when we were on the ground with the Founder before we totally found the portal!"
A/N: And the saga of Sky City will end... next chapter. xD
ChoyofBonk: Haha xD
Toni42: Yep... and next chapter and chapter after that's gonna be fun, there's gonna be a filler chapter! Woo!
Kaos Ruin: Nice xD
RapidSammi: Noted. And yeah :)
NoItsBecky: Lol yep xD
Boggie445: You will just have to see :)
rebekahtpe: Petra's bad side but allies with her. She's better as an ally than Aiden. (Aiden: Hey!)
DemonCatLady: N'aww, thanks!
A Person: Lol, please do xD it shall be a momentous occasion indeed
Kitty7Claws: Yeah I have no clue how I'm at 90 already
guest1021: Lol xD No promises
GuestPerson13: We shall have to see (wiggles eyebrows) And we'll wait until the end until we talk about the end, thank you very much xD No spoilers!
x.X. A.L. X.x.
