Lukas let out a low whistle, pulling out his journal. "Wow. That is... that's a lot of stairs."
Ivor hummed, putting a hand to his chin. "And all revealed by the Redstone Heart... amazing."
Harper grinned at him, making the pale Order of the Stone member flush a little bit, Cassie shooting him a teasing smile. "Yeah, not bad, right?"
Jesse went back over to the Heart and carefully pulled it out, holding it in her hands and feeling it pulse, before putting it back in her pocket.
Harper gestured, kindly. "After you."
Jesse looked up the stairs, a small smile on her face, as she bounced on the balls of her feet a bit. "Alrighty, time to get a move on." And they all started walking up the stairs, Jesse in the lead, Harper a little behind her.
"Actually, I've been wondering something for a while," Lukas spoke, making everyone look at him, "or... well, about three hours. When I was... chipped, I had a bunch of memories coming in and out of my head when PAMA wasn't talking. And I have to wonder, if we're hybrids, how did they get a hold of us as the ones they used as hybrids? And why us, for that matter?"
Harper took a minute to answer. "Well, when we were looking for good, uhm, test subjects for the experiments, we were told that the younger they were, the better the DNA would 'take'. So we went to go look through orphanages, to check for children that would be best for the experiments. Either their body structure was better, or their personality would suit the monster or mob we planned to combine them with. And that just happened to be only two children first- a spider and a wolf hybrid."
Jesse's lower arms started to fidget. "So... me and my brother then?"
"You have a brother?!" everyone except for Cassie and Harper exclaimed, loudly. Their voices echoed along the long staircase a bit eerily.
Jesse chuckled, rubbing the back of her head awkwardly. "Ah... yeah, I forgot to mention that, didn't I? Yeah, I think I had a brother, from the memories I'm getting back. And I think he has the same name I do, except I started calling him Jace after a while. He's my twin."
Petra's mouth was gaping open and shutting silently, gold eyes wide. Lukas was just staring at Jesse, tail not even twitching in shock, and Ivor looked... well, actually, he looked pretty impassive, but Jesse could see the shock in his dark blue eyes.
"Oh," Jesse spoke up suddenly, "I just remembered- Ivor, what possessed you to name me Jesse? That's actually my real name..."
Ivor blinked at the spider hybrid, processing the question for a moment, brow furrowing as he tried to remember. "... oh! Yes, I remember now. Soren sometimes mentioned someone called Jesse, although he never specified if it was a female or a male. So I thought he'd get a kick out of it."
Harper and Cassie made a sound in the back of their throat, making all of them look at the two females, who were sharing a confused look with the other. "Soren?" Harper asked, finally.
"Yes, why?"
The two girls shared another look, a wary sort of look on their face. "... it's nothing. Don't worry about it."
Ivor raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. "All right."
"What does your brother look like?" Petra wondered, tilting her head at Jesse.
Jesse screwed her face up as she tried to remember. "Mmmm, he had eyes like mine, I think. And his hair was brown. He had some sort of... brownish wolf ears. And a tail. Can't forget the tail."
"It was a fluffy tail," Cassie agreed mildly, making Jesse snort at the redhead slightly. "But what happened to him?"
Harper's smirk fell. "Ah. Yes, that... well, after a while, Hadrian-"
"Who?"
"You'll meet him in a bit, don't worry about him," Harper said a bit dismissively, "anyway, we were going back to our... 'home base', for lack of a better term. We did it in your world because the climate was the most normal out of all of them, meaning that the lab wouldn't have to spend as much money on air conditioning and heating and all that. A-anyway, we had to head back to the 'home base', and Hadrian wanted to bring one of them back to study. The scientist- the head one, below us of course, wanted to study Jesse in more detail, so he decided on the wolf hybrid. Jesse put up quite the fuss, which meant that they had to utilize the memory chips I'd been working on."
"Ohh, is that why when PAMA chipped me I had a couple memories come back?"
"Possibly the signals were conflicting. I'm not sure, but I'd be willing to bet that's what happened. Anyhow," Harper said, hastily, "well, we took him back to the home base, about two years early. And he's been there since. Or... I'm fairly certain anyhow; I haven't seen him in about eight or nine years."
Jesse opened her mouth to say something, hesitated, and then shut it again. "I see."
Harper looked around, looking rather nostalgic. "Feels like just yesterday we were building this place... still don't agree with some of the aesthetic choices."
Jesse snorted, the sad mood from a moment ago disappearing at the comment. "Well, I like it. This place is awesome!"
"Well, it's not terribly bad," Harper said mildly, before adding, softer than before, "kinda thought I'd never need to come back, to tell you the truth."
They stepped out into a huge, open space, blocks hanging in midair around the lo-o-ong staircase. Jesse couldn't help but stare around at the place, green and red eyes shining. "This is lovely," she said mildly.
"Oohhh," Petra said teasingly, "I'm sensing a story here."
Harper hesitated, before saying, not sounding terribly amused, "I guess you could say that."
"Aw, c'mon, Harper, going home is fun!" Jesse said mildly, Winslow meowing his agreement and Lukas meowing back.
Harper grimaced as the two cats engaged in a conversation, "The others might not be 100% happy to see me."
Ivor's dark blue eyes lit up. "Others? You mean we're going to meet MORE Old Builders?"
"Still don't like it when you call us that," Harper remarked, before continuing, "Yep, but I gotta warn ya, they're not as friendly as I am. I'm probably one of the, ah... nicest 'Old Builders'."
Jesse shrugged as Cassie rubbed her arm sheepishly, "Well I'm glad you're on our side. Old Builder or not, you've been pretty cool thus far."
Harper blinked, a small smile coming over her face. "Well thank you, Jesse. I hope I can keep living up to that."
"This is worse than Soren's End fortress staircase," Lukas grumbled in complaint, breaking out of cat language.
Jesse snorted. "Oh yeah, Axel would not have enjoyed this too much. But hey, we're just gonna get the Atlas, and then go home, right?"
Harper hesitated before answering. "... kind of? The Atlas isn't exactly mine to give. It belongs to the other... 'Old Builders'. And... well, they might not want to give it up."
A/N: And we are officially in Episode 8! I hope some of your questions have been answered :) We'll be taking a look at the journal in some parts of the next episode.
The stairs are so long that I have to split it into two parts xD
700 reviews.
SEVEN HUNDRED REVIEWS.
Just...
thanks, guys. :) That's all I can really say... thank you SO much.
RapidSammi: That's for me to know right now, and for you to find out later :)
rebekahtpe: Axe-gun. Axes are cool.
Guest: (thumbs up)
angelwings: Oh noes... 1. What do you think? 2. Yep 3. We'll get a bit of this... later xD 4. Maybe (insert Lenny face here) 5. Maybe :) 6. PFFFTTTTTT xD
LittleAngelbun: It's so long that the stairs are now in two parts xD And my plans are for me to know... and for you to find out :)
TheRealRedGaming: I know you don't mind but I'd still find it incredibly odd for me to use your Twitter... especially considering my experiences with social media... :/ And now you know ;)
RattlesnaketheSandWing: Ooh! Soren had something to do with it...
x.X. A.L. X.x.
