Harper hugged her elbows to herself, and the woman next to him narrowed her eyes at the Old Builder. "You... did..."

"Nonono," Jesse said hastily, trotting over and putting a hand on the woman's shoulder, "Harper helped us defeat PAMA too."

"Yeah!" Cassie nodded rapidly, almost flipping her hair into her face. Pushing it aside impatiently, she added, "Without her help, I don't think we would've been able to beat the damn computer- oh, sorry, Jesse."

Jesse waved it off. "Nah, believe me, if I had a tongue as foul as yours I would've liked to curse PAMA into oblivion rather than dumping water all over it."

"Fortunately for PAMA, you are an innocent little cinnamon roll."

"How would that work, anyway? Would you wrap the dough around me or something? I never get that saying."

"I like it," Ivor raised his hand.

"It's really a funny saying though," Petra put in, "Jesse's not that innocent... she's pretty close, but not quite."

Lukas nodded thoughtfully. "Yeah, she's like a cinnamon roll made with a teaspoon of salt."

Jesse rolled her eyes at the ocelot hybrid. "Gee, thanks," she remarked sardonically, a little smirk on her face.

"No problemo."

Some of the villagers towards the back were snickering at the little banter between the four of them, but Harry wasn't deterred. "So, what, we're just supposed to forgive her now?"

"No," the woman villager chuckled, "I don't think so."

Another man chimed in, "Harper stripped this place bare- how are we supposed to rebuild-?"

"Hey!" Cassie snapped, eyes flashing red as her head whipped around to face the villagers, "would you give her a break?! She's been trying to get you all out of this mess for ages, cut her some slack!"

Harper was staring at Cassie with an expression that was unreadable, except for the gratitude that was practically glowing in her eyes. Cassie relaxed, giving the Old Builder a small smile. "Besides, she's not that bad when you get to know her," she added.

Jesse took a deep breath and steepled her fingers together. "Well, whatever you guys decide to do, Harper will make things right, and be able to help you clean it all up," she said, calmly, rocking forward onto her tiptoes and then falling back down.

"I... I will?" Harper asked timidly.

"Yeah, she will?" one of the female townspeople asked flatly.

"Yeah." Jesse gave Harper a small smile, and her lower elbow gently elbowed the woman in the ribs. Harper nodded, rubbing the back of her head sheepishly. "Yes. Yes I will. After I help these guys find their way home, I'll come back, help you all find new resources, and we can make this world great again."

Cassie stretched, lacing her fingers together behind her head. "Well, whatever Harper does, I have no doubt she can do it. This woman is resourceful."

Harper gave Cassie a weak smile, as one of the villagers shrugged. "Worth a shot, I guess."

Jesse clapped her hands together, a smile coming onto her face. "Uhm, well! I think that'd be our cue to set out for home... again... bye!" and the seven of them turned around and started trotting away through the sand and the clay.

Harper gave Jesse and Cassie a small smile. "Thanks for being so understanding, you two. I just hope these people can do the same when I come back again..."

"You helped free them. I'm sure they'll come around," Jesse responded, reaching out with her upper arm and giving the woman's shoulder a squeeze again.

Cassie shrugged, absentmindedly stroking Winslow. "Yeah, it's not very easy to stay mad at you," she said lazily, taking out a fish and holding it out to Winslow, who purred and started eating it, before glancing over to see Lukas staring at the fish intently as well.

"I'm glad you think so," Harper said, a small smile coming over her face again, eyes shining with gratitude.

Jesse turned around from where they were standing in front of the portal, smiling at them all. "Good luck, everyone!" she said cheerfully, all of them waving at the citizens of Crown Mesa.

"Yeah, we'll need it..."

"Thank you Jesse!"

Jesse turned back around with a tiny little smile playing on her face, pulling out the glowing blue flint and steel, leaning forward a bit so that the flint and steel hovered inside the portal, and gently clicked it together.

A red swirling substance burst into appearance inside the portal doorway, and the people started cheering. "See you soon, Harper!" one of the villagers called, looking less cross than before.

Harper gave a rather shy, hopeful wave. "See you soon!" she called back, and then stepped through, Lukas, Ivor, Cassie and Winslow following. Petra came up to it, before pausing and looking at her spider hybrid friend. "You know, Jesse, for all the grief we gave each other getting to this world," and she put a hand on the spider hybrid's shoulder, "I'm really glad we came."

Jesse smiled back at her friend, eyes crinkling up slightly. "Yeah, Petra. Me too." And the two of them disappeared through the portal too.

The electric shock was gone this time as the beads parted and they stepped into the pleasantly dark portal hallway, Jesse putting her hands on her hips. "Right back where we started," she said mildly, all of them looking around.

Lukas's eyebrow wrinkled as they all started following Harper, looking around the hallway. "Is it weird that I'm happy to see this place again?"

"Nahh," Jesse said, giving him a grin, "I'm kind of happy too. It's great that we might be able to get home soon."

"Now when we built this place," Harper said, glancing over her shoulder at the group of six (including Winslow), "we also made something that sorta acts as a compass-slash-map-slash-navigator... we called it 'the Atlas'."

Cassie's brow furrowed a little. "I don't think my aunt mentioned it to me... whatever, keep going, Harper."

"It helps chart routes between the worlds," Harper continued, before Petra asked, warily, "And... you have this Atlas, right?"

Harper winced a bit. "Ahhh... no. No I don't. But! But I know who does!"

Jesse shrugged. "Well, it's still better than just randomly wandering the worlds and trying to blunder our way through it," she joked somewhat playfully. "So I guess it's not too bad."

"Don't you worry!" Harper said, reassuringly, "we'll just go right in, ask for the Atlas, and then you'll be home. No muss, no fuss... easy."

"Funny," Petra said somewhat flatly, "whenever someone says that my instincts start screaming 'danger.'"

Jesse chuckled a bit at that. "Yeah, I've learned that NOTHING is easy. NOTHING."

"Not even brewing a potion?"

"Not even that if you're us and Magnus and Axel are blowing up the coffee table every other frickin' day, no," Jesse responded promptly.

"True."

"In order to find the Atlas," Harper said, sounding faintly amused by their bantering, "we need to track down the rest of the... um, 'Old Builders'. Still don't like that name..."

"Okay, well, how do we find them, then?" Jesse asked patiently, "which portal do we go through?"

Harper blinked at that. "Oh! You don't have to go through another portal- what you're looking for has been right here the whole time!" She turned to the wall and slammed through a block, revealing a whole that extended back who-knows-how-far. "And there you go. All it's waiting for is the key."

Jesse hesitated, before reaching into her pocket and pulling out the Heart, which pulsed in her hands as she extended it towards the hole, and then pushed it into place.

The whole hallway started shaking, as a portal next to the recess where Jesse had placed the Redstone Heart slid down into the floor, revealing a long staircase that went up what seemed like endlessly. Jesse felt her jaw drop, as did everyone else's, even Cassie's. "No way..."

"The answers you're seeking, the Old Builder's Atlas, the way home," Harper said, walking up to Jesse, "they're all right up those stairs."

Jesse stepped to the base of the stairs, tipping her head back as she stared up the seemingly endless expanse of stairs.

Hopefully some of the more quiet answers, way in the back of her head, were going to be answered, too.

A/N: Wow, one more episode left and then this story's over! The next chapter's gonna be the beginning of Episode 8 plus a filler chapter. And this is a special filler chapter, if you actually read these A/Ns. This chapter is a Q & A answering chapter! You guys are going to ask questions about Jace, the journal, things related to the hybrids and the Old Builders, and I'll write them in as Harper (or Cassie) explaining to Jesse and the others, since these guys really DO need some explanations! (don't request anything, though- just questions.)

NoItsBecky: Lol xD

SanstheSkeleton: Lol xD (is trying so hard not to die of laughter)

angelwings: Good job! I like drawing too :) I've apparently been drawing since I was like two, according to my dad, though he's probably exaggerating a little bit xD I can only draw people though. I don't know, I drew the cover and my profile picture, so (shrugs) G'luck with that, mate!

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