Jesse took the sword, twirled it, and flicked her axe back up, a small smile on her face. "Well... thanks, Em," she said, unable to stop grinning at the former gladiator.

"No problem," Em said, returning the grin, "You could say you really inspired me."

Jesse reached out and patted the girl on the shoulder. "I knew you weren't going to kill me."

"Did you now?"

Jesse thought about it for a second. "Not really. I was just hoping."

"I guess hoping paid off," and Em gave the girl a lopsided grin, crossing her arms.

"I guess so," Jesse agreed mildly enough.

"This isn't how it was supposed to go," Hadrian was hissing (quite audibly, though, since he was still talking into his microphone), "what's going on?"

"I have no idea!" Mevia whispered back, looking rather annoyed.

Em grinned at the other teams, as Jace bolted over, jumped on Jesse, and nearly succeeded in knocking the spider hybrid over. "Come on. Over here!"

With a bright grin, all the other teams ran over to where the two teams were now standing, joining the spider and wolf hybrid and the green team, as all the gladiators came over as well. "Yeah," Slab said, blinking at them all in confusion, "why aren't you all killing each other?"

Jesse blinked at the gladiators. Then back at the other competitors. "... we don't want to?"

Jace developed a suspicious cough right there on the spot.

"Yeah man," Nell said agreeably, "I can totally see why you'd be confused."

"We're not killing each other," Jace said, recovering from his little 'coughing' fit, "because we're done fighting each other, Slab. It's over. This ain't the Hunger Games."

"Uh huh," Slab said, sounding highly unconvinced, "So why do you all still have your weapons out?"

"Done fighting each other," Em repeated, putting more emphasis on 'each other'.

Jesse stepped forward, putting all of her non-occupied hands up in surrender. "Don't you see? None of us are the enemy," Jesse said, in a calm voice, "that would be them." And she pointed at the Old Builders, "they're the ones who're behind everything."

Clutch groaned, drawing all attention to the hot-pink-headed gladiator. "Arrgggh, my head hurts."

Facemeat looked pretty uncomfortable too. "Too many... perspectives..."

"Annnnd it appears that Jesse has decided that deals don't need to be kept and is trying to convince the gladiators to follow suit," Hadrian announced, sounding actually kind of pissed off now.

Jesse glared at Hadrian, crossing her arms. "Hey, Hadrian- deal's OFF!" she yelled, making everyone jump a bit at how utterly furious she looked at the Old Builder.

Mevia grumbled something rather rude into the microphone.

Clutch seized Slab's shoulders and started shaking her cohort so hard Jesse could almost hear his brain rattling in his head. "Slab? Slab! What should we do?!" she exclaimed.

"Uhhh... uhhh..." Slab said, looking incredibly disconcerted.

"I'm sure that the slaughter will commence soon, right?" Hadrian asked the gladiators pointedly.

"With Slab leading the charge it should be no problem at all!" Mevia agreed, shooting Jesse what the spider hybrid was sure was an incredibly poisonous glare but which Jesse could not see due to the Old Builder being up on a platform.

Jesse shrugged. "Hey, it's up to you to do whatever you want to do... but honestly, it'd probably be in a better interest for you to fight back against those- those Old Builders!" Now that she thought about it, she did see Harper's point; that name was quite... awkward to say; but heck it made a great insult to the two brightly colored living fossils (she was okay with Otto... sort of).

"No way," Clutch said immediately, "I am very strong... but not strong enough for that."

Facemeat snorted in agreement, "Yep, that is some straight crazy talk."

And the gladiators turned around and started walking off the field, still looking incredibly disoriented.

Jesse looked to Slab, who was glancing over his shoulder at his friends. "Not... going with them, Slab?" she asked, curiously.

Slab hesitated, before he started speaking. "In my life, I've done some things I'm not proud of. But I won't work for bosses who use people, or manipulate them. That's inconsiderate." And he glared at the Old Builders for a moment, and then he looked back at Jesse, who blinked as he neared her. "But you? When I was mean to you, pushed you around and made you go to the tower with me? You got that I was just doin' my job and came anyway so we could be on time. That was real considerate." He gave Jesse what the spider hybrid was sure was meant to be a comforting pat on the back but in reality made the girl's knees buckle as she almost did a faceplant on the ground. "I will fight the Old Builders," Slab said a bit obliviously, "by your side."

Jace helped his sister back up, who grinned at him before speaking again, "I think it's about time we finish this- together."

And they all started walking towards the platform in the center of the arena. "It appears that all of the competitors are headed towards the victory platform," Otto spoke, "as stated in the rules, ANYONE who is not eliminated may step on the victory platform and win the games! It looks like they are going to do this together!"

Jesse put her weapons away and gave Em a nervous grin.

Em returned it with a smirk of her own. "After you, fearless leader."

"Oh haha."

"E tu, Slab? You'll pay for this!" Hadrian yelled at the gladiator, who gave him a cold look in response.

"This wasn't the deal, Jesse!"

"I just told you that the deal's off, you imbecile!" Jesse snapped back, climbing the ladder and reaching the top in moments.

"And they've done it!" Otto said loudly, all of them climbing to the top of the platform, "the competitors have all stepped onto the platform together, which, by the Builder bylaws, means they! Are! All! The! Winners!"

And the competitors all cheered.

If only Jesse's instincts weren't screaming that something was going to go horribly wrong.

A/N: Yay! Togetherness!

But it's not over yet! Jesse and her friends still have to deal with some of the biggest hurdles in their path, and they are some pretty darn big hurdles!

angelwings: I know :3

RapidSammi: Lol xD

rebekahtpe: (whistles casually) And I like all apples, so soft and crunchy, as long as it's an apple and not rotten, I love it x3

LittleAngelbun: (is steering the hype train singlehandedly)

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