Jesse gaped at Aiden, not taking his hand, silence stretching out for a full six seconds.

And then she came back to life.

"But you-but how- but- you were- huh?!" she blurted, eyes wider than dinner plates.

Aiden grinned sheepishly. "Well, we had some unexpected guests in Sky- well, Land- well, the city, and... well, a bunch of people decided to come help."

A loud clucking startled Jesse, and she almost fell backwards into the pit as a little chicken head popped up right in front of Jesse, clucking.

"Benedict! Oh, hello, Jesse. Are you all right?"

If Jesse's eyes had been wide a minute ago, they were now the size of those fancy dishes with the platter cover on top. Isa's gold dress was a bit dirty, and her makeup was a bit faded, but she still held herself like the ruler of Sky City that Jesse had known.

Jesse stared, before moving her head to look past the three of them.

Maya and Gill were looking around, both looking sufficiently startled at their surroundings, as Reginald kept an eye on the two of them while Milo was looking at the obsidian with interest. Magnus's hands were on his knees as he panted, trying to catch his breath, Ellegaard trying not to look incredibly amused at the Rogue and failing miserably, Gabriel blinking at Jace who looked incredibly relieved at the sight of his sister being safe, and Soren looking off in a different direction and waving. "Hello, Harper," he called.

Jesse got to her feet slowly, vaguely noticing Mevia looking just as shell-shocked as Jesse felt and then her head swiveled to see Harper leading-

Her heart leapt. "You're okay!" she shouted, waving furiously at them and running over to Petra, Lukas, Axel, Olivia, and Ivor, Reuben riding the Blaze hybrid piggyback before she set him down. Cassie came out too, panting, holding a glowing sword before shoving it towards Jesse, who jumped back a step in surprise. "You'll need this," she said, panting as Winslow purred, looking pleased. Em and Slab followed from behind them, both of them holding enchanted weapons.

Jesse blinked at Cassie as the red-haired girl plopped the sword into her open hand, mouth still hanging open. "... huh?" she repeated.

"And... Cassie," Soren said, sounding surprised.

Cassie blinked at the ginger architect. "Soren?"

"Yo, Soren," Magnus said, sounding irritated and out of breath at the same time, "do you mind explaining how you know the makeup queen and the redhead to us? And how the pig is now human?"

Isa sputtered a little, looking a bit irritated. "'Makeup queen?'" she asked, sounding affronted.

Soren opened his mouth, perhaps to expound on it, before Jesse held up her hands, having half-recovered from the shock. "Now is not... not the time to talk about it..." She shot Hadrian and Mevia a look, "it's more of the time to deal with them before they become a bigger pain in the-" She stopped herself, not wanting to swear.

Cassie looked at Jesse with an amused expression on her lips. "Would you like me to finish that statement for you?"

"Yes please."

Cassie finished the statement and added a few more... colorful expressions to it.

Isa blinked at Cassie before looking away again, as Hadrian clambered his way out of the pit behind them.

"Okay, now less talking, more fighting. Can the... erm, older than 18-year-olds go deal with Hadrian? I'm sure I can handle both but not at the same time..." Jesse asked, quickly, glancing at the two Old Builders behind them.

Soren grinned a bit lopsidedly, whipping out his own glowing diamond sword. "I think we can handle it." Ivor smirked in agreement, pulling out his potion bag, which was covered in little fluffy bits of wool- apparently it had been recovered from Sheep World.

"I want to bite Hadrian's leg off, so I'm going with them," Jace reported, pointing at the adults in the room.

"Good. And please do, Jace." And with that the two groups split up, Reuben racing to keep up with Jesse and surpassing her.

Mevia turned to see a blur of pink and white bolting at her, and she gave Jesse an incredulous laugh as the hybrids and the Blaze Rods ran towards her. "Are you seriou-"

Reuben didn't stop running, but slammed into her, making her knees buckle. But the little pig hybrid wasn't done- he brought his leg up in a fierce kick and hit Mevia in the chest, knocking her back again with a yelp, and then he punched the Old Builder in the face, before grabbing her by the front of the shirt and tossing her into the air, and then jumping up and slamming her into the ground.

Every teenager except for Jesse gaped at the little kid. Jesse glanced at Aiden. "You remember one time I told you that we would get our revenge?"

"Vividly," Aiden said, glancing back at Jesse, his mouth hanging open in stunned surprise slightly.

"I mostly meant Reuben and me more than the others. Don't ever mess with Reuben."

Aiden looked back at Reuben. "... ah."

Mevia groaned as she got back up, before a pair of hands yanked her to her feet, Aiden holding the cyan-haired woman up with a malevolent glare. "Now, what do we do now..."

"Throw her here," Maya called, waving. Aiden drew back before heaving the Old Builder at Maya, who drew her sword and then swung it like a baseball bat, knocking a rather shocked Mevia at Lukas, who slashed his claws violently before shoving her at Gill, who caught her and tossed her to Axel, who swirled her around and threw her up randomly, Petra aiming a fireball at the Old Builder and catching the edge of her robes, catching them on fire a bit.

Mevia slammed into the web Jesse had made earlier, and got rather entangled in the string. Jesse smirked sardonically. "Oh dear, my web has a fly in it. Do you mind getting her out, Olivia?" she asked, innocently.

Olivia's bright pink eyes glowed with fury as she smirked. "Oh, not at all!" She blinked out in a spurt of pink sparks, and she slammed her arm into Mevia's back full force, knocking the Old Builder to the ground.

Mevia let out a loud groan from where she was flat on her back, staring dizzily upwards to see a pair of glowing red eyes and a cascade of red locks, as well as an enchanted axe.

"Care to do the honors, Cassie?"

A glint of white teeth as they bared in a furious smile. "It would be my pleasure!" And the axe went flashing down.

Mevia's huge inventory scattered over the ground as Cassie took a deep, calming breath, eyes going back to green, and turned back and smiled at everyone in the room. "Well that was fun."

"Yeah, can't deny that."

"You said it."

Everyone agreed mildly with Cassie's statement, Winslow letting out a snigger, before suddenly they all heard a yelp.

Jesse turned to see-

Her blood went cold as Jace flew into a wall, something snapping cruelly as he hit the wall, and then fell to the ground limply.

"Jace? Ja-" She was cut off as he disappeared into smoke, his small inventory landing in a little heap.

There was an uneasy silence, as everyone stared at where Jace had hit the wall.

Jesse was especially frozen, eyes wide. Finally, her lips barely parted as she breathed out a word.

"Jace?"

A/N: Welp, Hadrian's screwed. He is so majorly screwed that it's not even funny at this point. RIP Hadrian- rest in pieces.

Hadrian: That's.. not a very funny joke.

Me: Who said it was a joke?

Hadrian: ...

Anyway, I feel like I made the others a bit sadistic, but here the Blaze Rods redeem themselves and Axel, Olivia, Petra, Lukas, and Reuben get their revenge on the 'scary lady'. Back to the one review I got!

Toni42: Yep x3 Explanations come after Hadrian dies a very painful death. And emotions. Soo many emotions...

x.X. A.L. X.x