im so sorry i took so long. But i wasnt completely doing nothing since the last update, ive been editing past chapters bc therye like….kinda bad lol. Lots of grammar mistakes and repeated words and there were some chapter where all the italics had been removed. I cant do much to fix the over all bad quality of them but you know im trying lmao. Chapter six was especially horrendous and im so sorry you guys had to sludge thru that mess.

I started this a while ago and just now finished it, so if the style or pacing or anything changes about 4k words in thats why lol

And im gonna be real here, i know there have been lukjess moments throughout this series and i havent been acknowledging them despite saying that pairings were up for grabs, but they are i promise. Lukjess just has some backing because i already think its cute. So i apologize for all the times that i have and will write hints of lukjess.

EDIT: I've deleted chapters 9-13. they were all SO bad. I'm really sorry lol. I'll be working on rewriting them. in the meantime, I'm slowly editing this fic and uploading it to AO3, where the story is a lot more polished. my username is Potent_Dog_Energy. pls check it out there I have almost no views lmao. its only uploaded to chapter 4 atm, but keep checking in while I painstakingly rewrite tens of thousands of words of content. fucking rip. wish me luck because I've kinda forgotten how to write for some reason :(

also I'm aware that my brother posted a review under my name on here lol


From the pool of shadows that bathed Jesse's aching feet, she knew it was midday. This late in the fall, the sun has lost its intensity, leaving patches of cool ground across shadows left by overarching trees and steep, short rocksides that grew in abundance the higher they travelled.

Lukas had been trailing behind the group from the very start, seeming unwilling to join them as they trekked ahead.

Entering a rocky meadow, Jesse slowed her throbbing feet, lagging behind Axel and Olivia who were deep in conversation so she walked with Lukas. She'd been holding an exhausted Reuben for what felt like hours now, but ignored her protesting arms. She and Lukascarried on in silence, Jesse looking at him expectantly as he looked back at her with equal expectancy.

Jesse finally rolled her eyes in a not unkind manner.

"You doing okay?" She asked, nudging his arm with her own.

"It was a rough night." He said after a pause.

"It happens. We were all tired, and—" She adjusted Reuben, who was curled up into a tight ball. "Well, I guess I'm just glad you're okay. I'm sorry about all that business last night."

"Honestly I'm just—I'm more embarrassed than anything else." He rubbed the back of his head laughing a little, though it was weak and forced, "Thanks again for being so cool about this. I know I'm being more tolerated than actually accepted."

"Hey, if Olivia says she's down with someone, she's down with them. You would know if she were just tolerating you."

Lukas cast glances between Axel, the ground in front of him, and her with hardly an ounce of subtlety. Jesse sighed through her nose.

"Listen, don't worry. Axel will get over it."

"But still, the way it all went down—wasn't cool."

"Give it time," She offered a reassuring smile, "He'll come around."

"...thanks, Jesse." He said. "Again, for—being so cool about this. Sorry, I'm repeating myself a lot, aren't I?"

Moving Reuben to one arm, she waved him off, "It's cool."

Meadow turned to forest, and forest turned to an impenetrable thicket of tangled mass as they continued forward, Jesse now leading. The trees grew so thickly that there was no undergrowth at all. Around their feet were only the browned remnants of branches and pine needles that had fallen in the recent rain. If there was a path there, they couldn't see it, so instead they wound their way through the trunks that grew tall, racing for their share of the sun's rays. They were so thickly clumped together in places that the group had to alter their path or risk becoming wedged between two trees.

"Are you sure this is the right way?" Olivia asked, tripping over a root and catching herself on a low hanging branch. "Because this doesn't seem like the right way!"

"We've searched the whole lower mountain side, all there's left to do is go up." Jesse said, helping her to her feet, "If you have a better idea, I would love to hear it, because I literally hate this so much."

She felt closed in on all sides, swatting at hanging vines and hopping over impossibly large roots. They had been twisting and turning through the massive jungle for so long that she had no idea if they were even going straight anymore. Everything looked the same. She wondered absently if the others knew this as well, or if they were keeping track of where they were going, or if they were all just blindly trusting her.

Her hands were sweating, and she wished she were still holding onto Reuben and had not handed him off to Axel. Her breaths were coming to her faster, and she struggled to keep them under control so as to not draw attention to herself from the others.

Sucking in then letting out a breath, she shook herself and walked forwards with purpose, selecting a fat tree with low hanging branches. She discarded her dirty shoes and tested her weight on the lowest limb, nodding to herself that the wood was healthy enough at the bottom and wouldn't taper off in quality halfway up.

"What are you doing?" Axel asked, mildly alarmed.

She turned to look at him, "Going up."

And with that she pulled herself up and began her ascent. Her calloused hands gripped the bark easily. The branches were almost too thick. She tested slimmer looking ones every now and then by pushing her weight against them with her feet. Jesse made it to the very top, pulling a few twigs from her hair and taking a moment to revel in the frigid breeze that made the tall tree creak and sway. Breathing in deeply, she let the wide expanse of the sky shed her previous anxiety from her. Holding a hand over her eyes, squinting through the sun her eyes had yet to adjust to, she searched the landscape. In every direction there was only a sea of treetops, the rising cusp of the mountain the only visible thing. Her heart began to sink into a pool of freezing water before she caught the relieving sight of clearing in the mass of vegetation. She reluctantly picked her way back down with careful ease, letting herself fall past the last few branches and landing on the ground.

"See anything?" Lukas asked.

"Yeah, a clearing just ahead." She said, wiping off the souls of her feet and tugging her boots back on

"Oh, thank the stars." Olivia groaned, "If I had to spend one more hour surrounded by trees was going to lose it and one of you was going to be dead."

"Same." Jesse sighed, "Same."

They continued onward, Jesse paying close attention to where they were facing at all times, unwilling to risk losing sight of the clearing's direction. Their environment slowed their progression down considerably compared to if they were simply walking through a field, and it took long enough to reach their destination they thought they had managed to pass it.

"Hey!" Lukas abruptly yelled from behind Jesse, scaring her out of her skin, "There's something over that way!"

"What is it? The clearing?" Olivia asked.

"No, no, it's some kind of… building I think."

"Let's get a closer look." Jesse said, "I mean, we were headed there anyway. Like, the building is probably synonymous with the clearing. But—you know what I mean."

They hurried around thickly barked trunks, under arching roots, and through curtains of vines. Jesse could see the reflection of what looked like stained glass reflecting the sun off it and quickened her pace as much as she could in the crowded forest. They broke out into the clearing and were nearly blinded by the sun.

The trees around them were veiled in the lightest of mists, their trunks sombre brown with sable cracks that gnarl the bark. As Jesse's vision once again adjusted, her eyes traveled to the edge of the woodland that became bright, sunlit silhouettes against, as if it were only daylight where they stood, like they were encircled by twilight. Before them stood a massive, dilapidated building with columns of quartz and a canopy of tangled, swaying vines hanging from a tall crumbling roof that sunbeams shone through. A weighty looking wall of stained glass connected at the top of the building between two pillars, casting colors across the ground.

"What is this place?" Axel set Reuben down, looking over the structure.

"That's what we're trying to figure out. I guess." Olivia said, parting vines as they walked across carpet-like moss covering cracked stone brick.

"It's the temple…" Lukas spoke, voice echoing softly the closer they came to the gaping entrance.

"Lukas, are you sure?" Olivia sounded doubtful.

Jesse squinted up at the stained glass, moving away from the colors that shone over the ground and ushering the others to do the same. She reached into her shirt, taking out the amulet and compared it to the design, closing one eye to better imagine the stretched casting of colors as the circle they depicted on the glass.

She opened her eye. "He's right! Look…" She circled around until they could fully look at the glass without the sun's reflection blinding them, and held up the necklace in comparison.

"Hoooly crap…" Axel said, craning his neck back.

"Think anyone's home?" Olivia asked, pulling a distracted Lukas along as he marveled at their surroundings.

"Let's go in and find out." Axel set Reuben down, who immediately took off to take in the new smells.

"Stay close, bud!" Jesse called, receiving a short oink in reply.

Through the tall entrance, they entered into a short tunnel that wasn't nearly as high as Axel was tall, leaving him to stoop into the darkness, one hand on the mildewed tiles. Lukas banged his head more than a few times on low arches carved into the rock every five feet or so, leaving Olivia snickering at the both of them. They emerged into a tall hallway, the ceiling dark enough that it could have ended either a few feet from the light of the torches or hundreds. Jesse experimentally threw a rock upwards, sighing in relief as it hit the unseen ceiling relatively quickly. The spiderwebs had everyone on edge as Jesse ignited burnt out torches while they walked, handing one to Axel who held it high above them, nervously inspecting the webs that overtook the space above their heads. None of them wanted to deal with giant spiders at the moment.

The temperature dropped the farther they travelled. The stones bricking them in fit together like an oversized jigsaw puzzle. They were cold and smooth underneath Jesse's hand. Light reached neither wall nor ceiling ahead of them, confining their vision to a small circle of flickering orange cast by the torch in Axel's hand and the torches along the wall slowly sparking to live with the flint and steel.

"I don't have a great feeling about this." Lukas said, tracing fingers over patterns carved into the stones as they passed them.

"Let's just all be careful." Jesse warned, giving a shaky Reuben a comforting pat. "If you spot anything, call it out. I get the feeling we don't have a lot of time."

"Isn't it weird how dispensers are carved to look like spooky little faces." Axel noted.

"I think they look like frogs." Jesse commented lightly, smiling at the row of dusty dispenser blocks placed in small V patterns across the wall.

"It's like, 'what do you dispense, little guy?' You know?"

"I feel like we don't really want to find out." Olivia said.

An abrupt clunking noise had them freezing midstep.

"Get behind me!" Jesse hissed, reaching her arm over to place her hand on the hilt of her sword.

Slowly peeking around a corner, she examined a significantly wider hallway lit with cracked glowstone lamps on the walls. She beckoned the others forwards, stepping out into the light.

Approaching, they stopped in their tracks from what sounded like gears and cranks behind the walls. It stopped with a loud noise reminiscent of something metal clicking into place, startling an already panicked Reuben who squealed shrilly and bolted forwards.

"Reuben, no!" Jesse yelled, running after him. She felt her blood run cold as they stepped over a section of floor that sank beneath them, a pressure plate. They all skidded to a halt when bars came crashing down behind them, locking them in.

"What was that?!" Lukas cried.

"That's probably not a good thing." Axel observed mildly, like he was commenting on the weather.

Jesse's blood went cold as she looked down the hallway loaded to the teeth with dispensers, hearing them arm themselves with what were likely arrows.

"Run!" She shouted, pushing them forwards and kicking off in a race to outrun the redstone pressed stealthily into swirling designs engraved in the stone above, setting off the dispensers one by one behind them, arrows flying.

With each footfall, a jarring pain shoots from Jesse's ankle to knee, her sore muscles crying out in protest as her feet slam against the stone beneath her. Her boots slipped over the mildewy floors and she almost tumbled over, Olivia grabbing her in time and the two of them running with hands interlocked as they both helped the other from lagging behind or tripping. Reuben was bouncing in Lukas' arms and practically shrieking with each arrow that fired off closer and closer to them. They slid into a short section devoid of any dispenser, stepping over another wide pressure plate and activating more ahead of them. Jesse groaned, wiping the nervous sweat from her forehead, exhausted from the sprint. Her legs felt like they were spilling out from beneath her as she sagged against the wall, feeling very much like an old lady.

"And we're trapped." She said tartly.

"We activated the dispensers with that pressure plate." Lukas placed a shaking Reuben down who ran to Jesse and pressed against her leg. "If we can figure out a way to trigger the same one again, I bet that'll shut them off."

"It's worth a shot." Olivia said from beside Axel, "We just need to find a way to set it off."

"Look, there's a crafting table. Maybe we can make something useful."

"Out of what?" Axel asked sardonically. "We don't have anything."

"He's right too." Olivia sighed. "All of our tools and materials are back home, assuming our home is even still standing."

Jesse held her chin in thought. "All right. Everyone, empty your inventories. Let's see what we've got to work with."

"I have sticks left over from building the shelter last night." Lukas said, peering into his inventory and shuffling around its contents, "And an apple. Well, half an apple."

"I've got some flint and... " Olivia dug her hand inside her pocket, "...and… a piece of string."

"All I have are some chicken feathers my inventory picked up after that chicken machine exploded." Axel shrugged.

"Let's see." Jesse opened her inventory in front of her. "Well, I obviously have some flint and steel, my sword, and in here I've got a jar of pine resin and… oh, and some web from a spider Petra killed in the woods."

"String, sticks, flint and feathers." Olivia listed off, looking over the meager pile of crafting material they have.

She hurriedly set out the ingredients for a bow, testing the sticks Lukas handed her until she found a smooth, semi-rigid yet flexible one, setting it over the table with the string as the ingredients shook. The web and string twined together into a high-tensile bowstring and latched onto both limbs of the stick, pulling tight until it was a curved, elastic arc. She set it aside, placing the flint, sticks, and feathers down. They surged together and a bundle of arrows rolled out across the surface of the gridded table.

Jesse unceremoniously threw all but one arrow into her inventory, picking up the bow.

She knocked the arrow, pulling it back on the string a few times to adjust to the feeling the bow. "All right, let's do this."

After a moment of lining up, she loosed the arrow. It hit its target, thunking into the wooden pressure plate and pressing the section of floor down. The dispensers ceased, and she grinned, looking back at the others.

"Good job, Jess." Olivia patted her shoulder

"Yeah-hah, nice!" Axel commended. "The No-Names' luck is changing."

Jesse leaned against the crafting table with a whooshing breath, massaging her cramping calf. "Don't jinx it, Axel."

"Doing all right?" Olivia asked.

"Yeah, I'm good." Jesse said, pushing off the dusty surface, making the mistake of slightly limping when her muscles tightened up again. She growled in annoyance and stomped her foot against the ground until it subsided, wincing when her thin throbbed.

"Um, you most definitely are not. Come here."

"I said I'm fine!" She whined, moving out of the other girl's reach, not expecting to be tackled by her.

"Hey!" She yelled.

Olivia just roughly pulled her pant leg up, sliding the red pants beneath it up her shin and gasping like an angry mother. Bruises littered the skin in large purple and yellow blotches. She pulled the denim up further despite Jesse protests and reveals her abused kneecap "Jesse!"

"What!" She yelled back, mimicking her tone as exasperation laced her features. "It's fine! They're just bruises!"

Lukas picked up her leg to view the damage, Jesse immediately smacking his hands away, roughly yanking her pant legs down "Hey, hands off pal!"

He snapped his hands away, ears turning a dark red as he held his palms up defensively.

"You should have told us!" Olivia scowled, standing.

"Oh you're one to talk." She pushed the other girls pants up, revealing a myriad of bruises. "You don't think I saw your legs when we were cleaning off at the river?"

"That's different." Olivia jerked her leg away from her.

"How?" She shook her head in disbelief at her, eyes narrowed. "Literally how is it any different!"

"Because I'm me and you're you!"

"And? What does that have to do with anything at all?" Jesse asked incredulously, pushing off from the gridded table and crossing her arms.

"You're basically the leader here, Jesse."

"Oh, I am not." She rolled her eyes. The others stayed quiet and Olivia only raised an eyebrow at her. She paused, then blanched. "Oh no. I am the leader, aren't I?"

"What did you think you were?" Olivia hissed at her.

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe, you guys' friend?"

"You can be our friend and still be the leader, Jesse." Axel said, quickly shutting his mouth at the look Olivia gave him.

"If I can just say something…"

Olvia sighed. "What, Lukas?"

"Well, as someone who was a 'leader', you don't have to be one in the sense that you have total authority over any of us. I mean you sort of do, but in a necessary way. Just—okay, just think of it like being the suggestion person. You're not in charge of all of our lives. You just happen to have the best set of skills for certain things we'll probably be faced with." He cleared his throat, releasing his next words in a single breath, "And also Gabriel chose you but that's more of a footnote."

"No, everyone here has good skills we've needed and will need in the future. And Gabriel didn't choose me, he just gave me… the amulet…" she was quiet for a moment. "Okay, so he chose me, but that doesnt make me some prophesied chosen one. I'm still just me, I'm Jesse. I'm Jesse before anything else."

"How about this." Olivia began, "You're Jesse, but you're also part-time suggestion person and tiebreaker. That last one won't even be new, you've always been the tiebreaker."

Jesse sighed. "All right, whatever. I'm me first, and quasi-leader second."

"See? That wasn't so hard."

"That was actually excruciating." She muttered.

"Don't be so dramatic. Let's just go miss not-leader."

"Shut up, Olivia." Jesse said.

They made their way down the hallway, the soft stone of the walls cracking with embedded arrows and crumbling to the ground occasionally, echoing to the ceiling. Entering a room of wood and sandstone carved with the faces of creepers, Jesse hopped up a short flight of stairs two steps at a time, squinting in the low light of the meager redstone blocks lighting the area. A second flight of stairs later they found themselves in a decrepit library of sorts lit once more with glowstone. Slick spiderwebs caught the light and shone like cracked glass. A wall of books bisected the space with an archway in the middle centered with a dusty podium occupied by an even dustier book.

"This… must be their enchantment room." Lukas said, wiping off a spine of a nearby book and reading the gold lettering.

"More like was." Olivia commented, looking unimpressed by the countless books and grand ceiling. "This place reeks of mildew. It's worse than ivor's little book basement."

"It does look like his creepy basement, doesn't it?" Axel said thoughtfully, looking around as the group dispersed from the doorway to look around.

Lukas took no time in collecting a short stack of books and ballanding it in his hands as he riffled through the expansive library. Jesse approached him, eyeing his small but growing tower of books as he set the volumes down with a 'hup' and delicately opened the thickest tome, the paper feathery and dotted with mold specks.

"Find something useful already?"

"Um, I don't know about useful... but there is a lot of history in this room. Here check this out." He motioned her towards him.

She looked over his shoulder at the book on his knee, reading from the page he had opened.

"The battle was fierce, but the Order of the stone emerged triumphant, saving the land and ensuring that peace and prosperity would reign forever."

"Well, not exactly forever." Lukas commented, turning the page for her. A Rendition of five figures had been drawn, two of which Jesse recognized.

"These five members, five friends, together would give so much to gain their rightful place as five heroes. They would author their own end. They would slay a dragon." She stopped, finally asking the question that was on the tip of everyone's tongues.

"Is that… Ivor?"

"Ivor was a member of the order of the stone!" Olivia, who had come up behind them with Axel, exclaimed, nearly grabbing the book from Lukas. She was shaking her head, looking at the drawing. "The stories never mentioned him…!"

"This is… crazy." Lukas said, flipping back through the pages.

"It's like… they erased him. There must be a reason he's never been mentioned." Jesse said, looking to Olivia. "Maybe he was different back then."

"Maybe they kicked them out." Axel shrugged.

"They cut him out of the story." Olivia voiced with realization.

"this could explain why Ivor had such a grudge against Gabriel." Jesse said.

"They lied to us, they lied to the whole world! What could be so important that they couldn't tell anyone about Ivor?" Olivia was pacing.

"She's got a point, what's their reason? Like why would they even do this to begin with?" Axel said before a smile broke over his face and he snorted "Man, I can't believe you yelled at a member of the Order of the Stone like that, Jesse."

"I didn't know!"

"Still, it's funny."

"I don't think it's very funny," said Lukas.

"Whatever, guys. The order might not be what we thought they were, but Petra is still out there. That monster is still out there."

"Jesse's right, we need to focus on what we came here to do." Lukas agreed, looking up from the book as he slid it from his lap and closed it.

"Hey, where do you think these stairs go?" Olivia had wandered from the group and was peering up a set of narrow sandstone stairs.

"They go up." Axel provided helpfully as they converged around the girl who squinted her eyes at him.

"Hopefully somewhere safe. Let's check it out." Jesse said, already halfway up the stairs.

"Hold on, wait for us!" Olivia yelled, kicking up dust as she hurried to match Jesse's pace, the boys following behind with Reuben.

A breeze hit Jesse as she reached the peak of the stairs, nearly falling over when Olivia came crashing into her from behind. Around them was a crumbling room of stone pillars encrusted with gold and decrepit walls caging long frames of cracked glass along the top of the ceiling. The sun cast eerie shadows that stretched across the dusty floor and shone through the strips of shattered glass making for spiderweb patterns that projected themselves over a scaling map pressed against one of the few intact sections of wall.

"Woah." Olivia beathed, craning her neck around the massive room.

Axel's voice rang from the stairs, growing louder. "You guys can't just do that you know. I've got weak old man bones, I'm not a spry as you two. Lukas is the same and he agrees."

"No I'm not and no I don't." Lukas responded from somewhere behind him. "You're not even old, I'm pretty sure we're the same age actually."

"Listen, it's nothing to be ashamed of, I—oh wow, this is so cool." Axel's wide frame came up behind the girls.

Lukas followed shortly, emerging from the stairwell with a look of wonder.

"What happened to the walls?" Axel voiced as he wandered towards the gaping hole to the outside, looking down.

"More like what happened to this whole place." Jesse said, eyes on the ground and she walked across shards of glass that ground against each other beneath her heel.

"This must have been where they met!" Olivia turned to Jesse.

"So… where are they, then?" Axel asked, looking around like he would find the answer right there.

Jesse rubbed her chin. "Gabriel said that once we find the temple, the amulet would lead us to the Order of the Stone."

"Well what're you waiting for, pull it out then." Axel walked up and nudged her.

She pulled the necklace out from the front of her overalls, taking it off from around her neck and holding it up with an expecting grin. They all stood in silence, waiting with similar expressions. A good ten seconds passed as they all looked at the amulet like morons.

"Is… something supposed to happen?" Olivia asked slowly, breaking the silence.

"Well that was a let down." Axel mumbled.

Jesse lowered her arm and held the amulet upright in her palm, scrutinizing it.

"There's got to be something we're missing. Look around and see if you can find anything."

"You got it Jesse." Olivia affirmed.

The group split up, each going in their own directions. Jesse found herself gravitating towards the old map spread out across the wall, the edges of it curling in its old age. On either side of it were stacks of colored glass, strangely untouched and whole unlike the broken glass littering the floor. She felt Reuben come up behind her, leaning against the side of her leg.

"Reuben, check this out. It's a map of the entire world." She said in wonderment. Staring a bit longer, she rested her hands on her hips, narrowing her eyes, "This is way nicer than the one at EnderCon."

Reuben pushed his cold snout against her exposed ankle, making a warbling noise.

"Right, right, sorry. Got distracted." She held her hands up defensively.

"If you need a better distraction, I found something that might be useful," Lukas peeked out above a large book from where he sat in front of the map.

"Lay it on me." Jesse smiled, moving to sit next to him. He cleared his throat.

"Well, the amulet was used to track the positions of the members of the order." He said matter-of-factly, looking to her and matching her grin.

Jesse waited for him to continue, but he only continued to look at her, smile still in place.

"Aaand… does it mention… how?"

"Oh! Right, uh," The tips of his ears had flushed pink, "Right, sorry. Um, it's less technical and, well, more historical."

She looked at him blankly. "...Meaning?"

"Meaning they have records of using the amulet this way, but don't say how."

"Ah."

"Yeah. Sorry if this wasn't much help, but at least it's something." He shrugged with a sheepish looking quirk of his lips.

"You're tight, It was something, and thank you for sharing it with me." She punched his arm amicably. "Don't be so quick to discredit yourself, Lukas."

"Right, sorry," He laughed a little.

"And don't say sorry!"

"Sorry—I mean, okay."

She shook her head at him in amusement, pushing herself up from her seat. Her attention was caught by Olivia, who was carefully brushing glass away from the ground so she could lean down on her knees and inspect a carving in the sandstone of a pedestal.

"Hey, find anything?"

Olivia either didn't hear her or didn't care enough to answer, instead running her hand over the runes and looking to her, her eyes shining with unbridled glee.

"We're in the temple of the Order of the Stone!"

"Uh, yep. Did it only just hit you that we're even here?"

Olivia wasn't deterred by her sarcastic reply, "I mean, the Order's actual temple!"

She placed a hand on one of her knees and stood up, looking to Jesse with a small smile, "Who'd've thought it, huh? A bunch of small towners like us wrapped up in an adventure like this."

"Yeah, it's pretty insane." Jesse said, fiddling with the amulet in her hand, "I just hope we all come out the other side in one piece."

"Of course we will. I mean maybe not you specifically, but, you know."

Jesse laughed, shoving her shoulder, "Shut up!"

Olivia grinned, pretending to rub her shoulder. Her smile fell a bit, and she stepped in closer, whispering conspiratorially to her.

"Hey, would you check on Axel? He suddenly seems kind of…"

They both looked to the larger boy, who was throwing bits of broken stone out through the gaping, crumbled walls, muttering to himself.

"...upset."

"Whats got him riled up so fast?" Jesse asked.

Olivia shrugged wordlessly, making an 'I dunno' type of sound.

"I'm on it." Jesse squeezed her shoulder, earning a smile from Olivia.

"Thanks, Jess."

She approached Axel, reaching up on her tip-toes to tap his arm. He looked down to her, then crossed his arms and turned away.

Undiscouraged, She leaned around him to try and see his face. "Watcha lookin' at?"

"Nothing, whatever!"

"Axel."

"It's nothing." He whined, rolling the rock he was about to throw between his hands.

"It doesn't seem like nothing." She said.

He looked to her, and she held her hands behind her back, kicking at the ground and giving him her best sullen expression.

"...Alright fine!" He sighed in defeat, "Just quit with that, would you? I'm not gonna look at you or even talk to you until you've promised you stopped."

She smiled brightly to herself, shifting her stance back into a normal one. "Okay, okay, I've stopped."

He turned his head ever so slightly to peek at her to see if she was lying. When he was sure the sad puppy routine was over and done with, he turned around.

"...I'm just trying to think of where Petra might be." He mumbled, "I mean I know she's gonna be fine, but I'm still worried. I'm a caring guy, alright?"

"I know you are. And we're gonna find her. Or she's gonna find us. Probably the latter now that I think about it." She bumped him with her shoulder, "My point is, everythings going to turn out fine, I know it."

"If you say so."

"I know so." She gave him a sound pat on the arm. "Your big heart is gonna be the death of you someday."

"Don't make me blush." He pretended to hold his cheek bashfully, making Jesse snicker.

She glanced behind them to catch Olivia's gaze, giving the other girl a thumbs up from behind her and Axel's backs.

"Now if we're done being buddy-buddy," Axel caught her attention back with a flick to the nose, "I think we were in the middle of investigating. And I think I might have found something earlier."

"Oh yeah? What is it?" She asked.

"Give me the amulet." He said, throwing his rock to the side.

She hesitated, looking between the amulet and Axel.

"Well? Hand it over."

She slowly placed the necklace into Axel's waiting hand, "All right, just be careful with it."

"Yeah, yeah." He led her over to the sandstone pedestal Olivia was still investigating the base of. "Now check this out."

He reached up, amulet in hand, and carefully wedged it between the sandstone base and the wooden frames sprouting up on either side of it, converging in the middle where the amulet now was.

"See? Like a glove." He proudly placed his hands on his hips.

Jesse stretched up on her tip-toes to test and see if it actually did fit like a glove and wasn't just precariously balancing between the sandstone and wood. Sure enough, it was stable and fit between the two perfectly.

"Wow Axel, how'd you figure that out?" She leaned back down, looking over the pedestal with an impressed look.

"It was easy as soon as I noticed what that banner was. See, look." He reached forwards and rubbed away the film of dust and grime coating a banner hanging on the pedestal's base that she hadn't noticed before. Brushed free of any obstructing particles, she could see a neatly stitched rendition of the amulet in fading colors, the thread coming loose and frayed in certain areas.

"It's the same as the amulet." She observed.

"Right?"

"What's the same as the amulet?" Olivia asked, standing from her position on the floor.

"Look for yourself," Axel said, stepping away so she could see the banner herself.

"You found this out, Axel?" She asked incredulously.

"Yes!" He said defensively, "Is that really so weird?"

"No, no, not at all." Olivia held her hands up in a placating manner. "You're just never one to be observant."

"You know what? I bet this is some kind of puzzle," Lukas said, joining the group.

"Yeah well I found it out first so I get the credit." Axel crossed his arms.

"No ones trying to take your discovery away from you, Axel." Jesse reassured. "And I'll bet whatever this is has something to do with those super obvious levers."

"I was wondering what those were." Olivia mumbled thoughtfully.

"Well, should we try them out then?" Lukas asked.

"I don't see anything else we could really do." Jesse said, walking behind the pedestal and stopping in front of the levers. "Well, here goes nothing."

She cranked down the first lever, the redstone torches in between the map and the stacked glass igniting and two of the colored panes lighting up. Upon closer inspection, she could make out glowstone blocks behind each square of glass.

"Oh, I see!" Lukas exclaimed. "We need to pull the levers in a specific order to light up each block!"

Jesse's expression soured. "I hate these kinds of puzzles."

"Then if I may?" He asked, approaching her.

"By all means." She gestured to the levers, stepping out of the way.

It only took about a minute of Lukas fiddling with the levers for all the glass panes to light up. A block of glowstone lit up on the long panel holding the levers, shooting out a condensed light to the amulet's middle. The garnet and emerald lit up, sending out two lights that lit up the map with two dots, red and green.

"Nice, Lukas!" Jesse cried.

"This is absolutely incredible!" Olivia proclaimed, "How did they build this?"

"It looks like some sort of tracking system. I think it's showing us where they are right now. This must be what Gabriel wanted us to see."

"Look, we don't know enough about how this thing works. Maybe the amulet only tracks them when they're on the surface. Or maybe it doesn't work when they're in the Nether. We have to go off what we do know." Lukas said.

"There are only two lights on the map." Jesse observed, "If there are only two heroes left, then we know what we need to do. Petra's relying on us, that wither storm is still out here

"There are only two members of the order left?" Axel repeated.

Jesse approached the map, crossing her arms and looking over the two lights, "He said Soren was missing…"

"That leaves Magnus or Ellegaard." Lukas finished.

"Then let's head out."

Lukas paused, visibly hesitating.

"What is it, Lukas?"

"I can't go with you guys, I have to stay here." He said. "If I know Petra, she's probably doing everything she can to find this place. She's still out there, she has to be."

"But we might need your help out there." Jesse protested.

"Nah, you don't need me. This is where I should be." He smiled at her, "If there's even a small chance she's alive… I have to stay.

Go, get help. I'm gonna focus on making this place safe before nightfall. This temple is pretty big though. If we're gonna have a chance at fortifying it, I'm gonna need some help. If uh… one of you guys could hang back with me?"

"Sounds like Olivia'll have you covered while me and Jesse are out finding Magnus." Axel said.

"'Finding Magnus?' You really think that's how this is going to go?" Olivia sounded doubtful. "We need Ellegaard. She's the world's greatest Engineer. She'll figure out a way to stop that thing."

"We're trying to destroy it, and when it comes to destruction, Magnus is the master." Axel looked to Jesse, an expecting grin on his face, going to stand beneath Magnus' light, "You're a smart person, Jesse, and obviously the smart thing is to go get Magnus."

"I, heh, think Axel mean Ellegaard there, Jesse." Olivia said, going to stand opposite of Axel under Ellegaard's light.

"Uh, no. I don't think I did. Pretty Sure I meant Magnus."

"Jesse, the point is, you should be going to Ellegaard's. It's the clear choice to make."

"You gotta come with me, not her."

"Think about it, Jesse! You need to make sure we get this right. We're not going to get a second shot at this!"

"Well hey, whatever decision you make, I'll be cool with it."

"Really?" Olivia said, cocking her hip out, stark undertones of sass in her voice.

"As long as It's me." Axel grinned.

"Yeah, that's what I thought you meant." Olivia rolled her eyes.

Jesse looked between the two, then to Lukas who only shrugged helplessly.

"Come on Jesse, this is an easy call—" Olivia tried

"An easy call if you're picking me, that is." Axel cut in.

Jesse massaged her head, "Okay you two! Just, shh! Let me think!"

Explosives made the most sense. It was unorthodox, that's for sure. But could they really use something as simple as that to defeat the wither? I didn't seem likely. They needed something out of the box, something a little more smart, something like...

"Ellegaard. Olivia, you and I are going to Elleaard's"

"YES!" Olivia fistbumped the air, jumping in place.

"What? You can't be serious, Jess."

"I'm sorry, Axel. I just think this might be the best. You stay here with Lukas and get ready for when Petra shows up."

"Oh come on! With that guy?" He motioned his head to Lukas.

"I thought we were over this."

"Come on, Axel. For Petra's sake." Olivia tried.

Axel kicked at the ground. "Fine, I'll do it. For Petra."

"I'll take it." Jesse smiled, walking up to nudge at Axel with her foot. "Thank you, Axel."


I realize this is sort of bad compared to previous chapters and im really sorry jkfjhdkjfh like the pacing is really really bad and the second half isnt super good

Anyway. Im thinking about just skipping over redstonia. the next chapter I've written is honestly so bad and I cant fix it no matter what I try. let me know?