Foreword

Here we go again! And guess what, y'all? Because I have a full Friday ahead of me, I'm posting this Thursday night so you'll have it nice and early! ;D This chapter also marks the end of the first section of the story as I have it split up, and also happens to be the chapter that FINALLY gets everyone all caught up on Ao3! Yay! :D So I hope you enjoy, and have a truly wonderful day everyone!

God bless!

Chapter XV

Petrified

««««« … »»»»»

Aiden couldn't have seen it coming.

He had been simply minding his own business looking for Maya and Gill when out of nowhere, an explosion rang through the entire convention. Aiden stopped in his tracks, holding his breath as everyone went so quiet a creeper could be heard on tiptoe. Within the next few moments, he heard another more muted explosion, then another, and another.

They were coming from inside the convention center.

What's going on in there?

Before anyone knew what was happening, a panicked horde of people flooded out from the center in a frenzy, shoving and shouting to get through.

The dead quiet became pandemonium before Aiden could even register anything.

What was that? What's happening? Why are they running? All these thoughts flitted through his mind faster than he could process them, but what finally managed to jolt him from his stupor was the one thought that scared him most.

Where's Lukas?!

Aiden shot into action. His eyes darted around as he looked for his best friend, suddenly terrified. He hadn't seen Lukas since before the chicken trap spontaneously self-destructed.

"Run!" he heard dozens of frightened people yell from the crowd. "Monster!" they called, but what really caught his attention was the distinct cry of, "WITHER!"

Wither?!

Aiden's heart could have stopped. That was the kind of thing kids would tell scary stories about over torchlight past their bedtime. The kind of thing they'd be afraid was hiding in their closet and would cry about until their parents assured them there was no way, since such monsters couldn't spawn.

That would explain the explosions.

"Lukas!" Aiden shouted, ever more concerned.

Aiden fought through the mob of people and looked everywhere, but he couldn't find him.

Darn it, Lukas, where—?

Aiden found himself shoved to the side by a panicked runner, barely staying on his feet and catching himself on a nearby booth.

"Hey!" he blasted on instinct, spinning around. "Watch where you're—!"

A bloodcurdling, bone-rattling shriek of the most monstrous kind pierced through the cloud of panic, undoubtedly drawing the eyes of every person within a one-hundred block radius to the convention center once more.

Out from the top where the ornate glass dome covered the building, a gargantuan black void erupted out, rearing three giant heads.

Aiden froze when he saw it.

What—in the—?

That—THAT was no Wither. He didn't know which of the deepest hottest layers of the Nether this thing had climbed out of, but that was no simple Wither. That was nothing short of a pure manifestation of everything dark and putrid. That was an anathema.

"Lukas?" he murmured, shaking. He ignored the terror threatening to make him cower. He ignored the tremor through his body and the chill down his spine, and he charged forward once again. "LUKAS! Where are you?!"

Please don't be anywhere near that thing.

Finally he spotted him, running back toward the convention center as Aiden had been.

"Lukas!" Aiden ran to him.

As soon as Lukas saw him, the look of panic on his face diminished slightly.

"Aiden!" he shouted, meeting him halfway. "I'm so glad you're okay!"

Aiden was about to agree when Lukas, sounding deeply worried, added out of nowhere, "Have you seen Jesse?"

Aiden blinked for the first time in what must have been minutes and impulsively frowned as he repeated in surprise, "Jesse?"

« … »

The light from the eye of the creature engulfed him in a bright beam of purple, and Jesse felt his feet leave the ground.

Jesse stiffened, looking down at the bridge now a block below him.

"Wait! No no no no!" he yelped, shouting out, "Somebody help me!"

He couldn't shout loud enough. The shrieking of the monster in tandem with the terrified screams of the crowd completely drowned him out.

Jesse flailed in an attempt to pull himself through the air, but it did little good. While he managed to work his way down slightly, it wasn't nearly enough to get free. Still, Jesse fought.

With all his might he fought back against the pull of the Wither's gaze, then Jesse spotted the top of a lamppost near him that was somehow holding. With one final thrust, he managed to grab onto it and held fast. He didn't know how long he held on for, but his arms were starting to hurt. It was all he could do to keep telling himself over and over, again and again, I can't let them down. They need me. My friends need me. My friends… need…

My…

As he was swallowed up in the hungry stare of the Wither, Jesse started to feel lightheaded and suddenly calmer.

What's… going on? He wondered. He… couldn't remember.

Where am I…?

It was all a blur.

…Who am I?

He felt tired.

He vaguely noticed a blurry shape growing bigger in front of him when something snagged his arm, and just like that he was pulled down. He hit the ground and gasped for breath, looking back up to see a man dressed in blue on the ground with him… the… the usher! It was the usher! And he was… he was Jesse.

Holy crap, what was that? he shook his head. What just happened?!

Somehow he was able to piece together enough to realize that he had just—

"You… you saved me," Jesse muttered.

The usher shot to his feet and wasted no time yanking Jesse up to his feet. "Don't thank me, run! GO!"

The usher shoved him forward and Jesse did exactly as he was told, fumbling into a sprint.

Don't look back, he ordered himself. Whatever you do, Jesse, don't look back!

As he ran, Jesse saw more than a few others also lifted off the ground and carried up into the sky and toward the monster. Among them, Jesse spotted—

No way…

The butcher thrashed around in the beam terrified as his booth fragmented to pieces below him. Before long, he was out of sight.

Oh man… Jesse thought. Gotta find my friends. Where are they—?

"Jesse!" he heard his name shouted from somewhere inside the chaos, and just barely recognized the voice. It was… It was…

"Lukas!" Jesse called back.

Jesse spotted him running toward him. Someone was with him. It was—Aiden.

"Holy crap, Jesse!" Lukas gasped out. "You're okay! When I saw you weren't behind us I—Oh man, if I was still in that basement, I—" Lukas stammered, looking frazzled. "Thanks for coming back for me, Jesse. I wouldn't be here without you."

Despite the utter terror all around them, Jesse managed a smile and a quick nod, while Aiden managed a frown.

Aiden nudged Lukas, sounding scared and impatient. "Ahem."

"Right," said Lukas. "Jesse, have you seen Maya and Gill?"

"No, I'm still looking for…" Jesse blanked. He held his head for a second.

Shoot, what were their—? "Axel and Olivia!"

Lukas raised an eyebrow. "Jesse? Are you—?"

Before he could finish, a familiar voice cried out for him.

"Jesse!" she screamed, "Help me!"

Jesse spun around and found the source of the call a short ways away. Olivia struggled to keep her feet grounded, all the while fighting to keep a hold of Petra's leg as she was lifted into the air by one of the monster's tractor beams.

"Olivia! Petra!"

Jesse ran over and grabbed onto Petra's other foot. Together the two of them were able to hold her down long enough for the monster to give up and move on.

Inertia sent all of them tumbling to the ground.

"Do we have everyone?" Jesse looked around, getting to his feet. Olivia and Petra were with him, and Lukas—and Aiden he supposed—came running as well. "Wait, where's Axel?"

"Right here!" Jesse heard from his right and turned to see Axel running up to them again, Reuben held under his arm. "And I found Reuben!"

Reuben! How had he forgotten? That tractor beam is powerful…

Gabriel appeared again, waving behind him a crowd of fearful civilians.

"Everyone, follow me!" he shouted over the chaos, stopping just long enough to gesture to Jesse and his friends. "We must get to my outpost!"

Gabriel didn't wait another second before he took off again and the crowd gave chase. Jesse and his friends were right on his tail.

"Thanks for that just now," Petra said as she caught up and ran alongside him.

Despite his scattered attention, Jesse managed, "Yeah, well, now we're eve—"

"Incoming!"

Petra shoved Jesse to the side right as one of the flaming skulls plummeted into the street, blasting open a creeper-worthy hole.

Orrr not.

Jesse shot back to his feet as Petra did the same. They spared one second to look at each other before they kept running without another word.

Gabriel led them through the streets and towards the gate out of town. Normally they would run away from monsters inside the town walls, not outside, but what was once a safe haven had quickly become anything but.

Right as Petra made it through the gate a little ways ahead of him, a stray fireskull hit the opening mechanism and the fence gate began to slide down. Jesse just barely managed to dive under it before it closed behind him.

Jesse pushed himself up, craning his head around to see the people who were behind him banging their fists against the wooden bars. His stomach lurched as he watched them all get sucked into the air by one of the purple beams, among them the lady from before, the one who had given them slime.

"Gah!" Jesse exclaimed, impulsively scooting back in fear. He got to his feet as fast as he could, one single thought in focus.

I have to keep going. I have to catch up to my friends.

So through the forest, he ran. His second time running for his life in the dark wilderness tonight.

"Stay together, everyone!" Gabriel shouted distantly.

The noise was overwhelming, and it seemed no matter how far they ran, the monster followed right behind them. It was slow, but even at their fastest it still kept up.

The night sky was coal black, darker than Jesse had ever seen it before. It was as if the Wither had created a barrier between the surface and the atmosphere that even the nearly full moon couldn't penetrate. The only thing lighting their path was the emissive beams sweeping the ground wherever the monster chose to look, and trees now set ablaze from the flaming skulls.

Jesse heard an alarmed shout and looked around to see the usher, the man who had saved him, caught in one of the tractor beams as well.

"Oh no!"

Jesse rushed to help but before he could get close enough, he was blown back by yet another explosion. And that was it. In the few seconds it took for him to get back up, the usher was carried into the air, too high for him to reach. There was nothing he could do, so Jesse kept running.

Heart racing, he spotted Axel and Olivia ahead. He kept running.

Another flaming skull blasted another hole in the ground directly in front of him. On pure instinct Jesse hurtled himself over it and landed on the other side in a roll. He kept running.

He'd never run so far and so fast in his whole life. He didn't know he could sprint for so long, or that he could jump so far. Adrenaline was incredible.

A wall of trees created a fork in the forest, dividing the exodus into two groups.

"Everyone, keep going!" Gabriel called out. "We'll meet up on the other side!"

Jesse followed Axel and Olivia to the right.

« … »

Aiden followed Lukas to the left. Lukas followed Gabriel the Warrior.

Nothing made sense. If it wasn't so real, he'd think he were having a nightmare. How could this be happening? What could have caused this? He didn't have time to wonder and yet he couldn't stop himself. The world couldn't actually be ending… could it?

"There!" Gabriel the Warrior yelled, pointing ahead to where Aiden could just barely make out the shape of a large building beyond the thinning trees. "Just up ahead! We're almost there!"

Almost there… we're almost there!

Through the brief moment of hope, Aiden forgot to watch where he was going. He tripped, falling down and landing on his face. He didn't have time to respond before he was lifted up against his will. Before he knew what was happening, the ground below was pulled away from him… or he was pulled away from it.

When his vision turned purple, he realized he'd been caught in one of the tractor beams.

"Lukas!" Aiden shouted. "Lukas HELP!"

But by the time Lukas saw him, it was already too late. Aiden reached out to him, he was just too far away.

"LUKAS!"

"AIDEN!"

Aiden screamed in terror as he was lifted even higher into the air, even farther away from the ground, and eventually Lukas was out of sight.

No, no, this can't be the end…

The world was spinning, his stomach churning, his head hurting, and he couldn't even tell up from down anymore.

It just can't be… I'm not… ready…

The bright purple turned to a blinding white, then everything went black.

« … »

They were almost there! Wherever there was. He didn't know, but Jesse trusted Gabriel. At least there was that.

Just a few more—

The ground rumbled as one of the monster's giant tendrils came down on the earth, causing the ground to quake. It quickly whipped back into the air and swiped in again for another shot. Jesse just barely managed to duck out of the way.

Great, he thought. It's gotten smart enough to pack a punch!

Another deafening shriek resounded, and Jesse had to cover his ears this time. It drowned out all other sound, and Jesse could only rely on his eyes for signals. Gabriel was waving for them to follow him into the building, but everyone who hadn't gotten lost in the forest or taken by the beams scattered as the monster waved its tentacles and hurled fireskulls every which way.

Jesse caught up to Olivia and Axel and urged them toward the outpost, then spotted Petra already running toward Gabriel, Lukas a few blocks behind her.

"Go! Go! Go!" Jesse heard Gabriel shouting as they got close, ushering them inside where they were immediately met by a door in a small room.

Gabriel made his way to the back of the room where he pulled some levers by the door in sequence: Up, down, up, down, up. The door opened.

"The inner chamber is built entirely of obsidian," Gabriel said as they made their way inside.

"That will stop the Wither?" asked Olivia.

"Definitely not!" he explained, "Obsidian wouldn't even hold up against a normal Wither. No, it won't stop it, but it should stall it."

A loud thud could be heard against the obsidian wall as the building rumbled.

"But not for long," Gabriel added.

Right behind them, one of the tentacles pushed its way in through the doorway and Gabriel immediately pulled out his diamond sword and slashed away at it, causing it to reel back.

"Hurry!" Gabriel shouted. "Get through the portal!"

Jesse turned around again to spot the obsidian portal in the center of the room. A Nether portal.

Desperate times…

The six of them together rushed up to it and Axel wasted no time in going through… but the portal frame was empty.

"Uh, something's not right here," said Axel.

"It needs to be lit!" Petra explained. "Does anyone have a flint and steel?"

Jesse blinked in realization.

I have flint and steel!

Thank the Creator for his random impulses to pocket random stuff!

Jesse pulled it out and struck the obsidian base.

Sounding panicked, Lukas urged him, "Hurry Jesse!"

Come on, come on!

Jesse struck again and with a warbling, whirring sound, the portal glowed to life.

"Everyone! Get in! NOW!" Petra shouted.

Olivia was the first in, with Axel hoisting Reuben right behind her. Lukas was just about to follow behind him when a cry of alarm called their attention back to Gabriel. He held onto the side of the door frame as the tentacle wrapped around him yanked back.

"Gabriel!" Jesse bolted to him, and halfway there he heard a loud cracking sound from above. He looked up where another tentacle breached through the ceiling and made a beeline for him.

"Jesse, look out!" Petra shouted, and shoved him forward. Not a second later she spun around to strike it and called back, "Go!"

Jesse did. He shot back to his feet and dashed over to Gabriel, grabbing him by his arms just as he lost his grip on the door frame. Jesse struggled, holding on as tight as he could until finally the tentacle slipped loose and retreated back outside. Jesse and Gabriel both fell to the ground.

Gabriel grunted as he pushed himself back up.

"Thank you," he muttered.

Gabriel looked outside where dozens of people hid and ran for their lives, all of them terrified and completely unprepared for this devastation. Gabriel hit his knees.

"There are so many of them…" he murmured. "I-I can't save them all." Gabriel then turned to Jesse who gave him a sympathetic look. "I can't stop this by myself." he continued. "We need to find the others."

Jesse spared a glance back at Petra who was holding her own, then looked back to Gabriel. "Others?"

"Soren's been missing for years," Gabriel explained, "but the others—you must seek them out."

Jesse blinked in surprised and bit his lip.

Wait… what is he…?

Gabriel reached behind his back and pulled out an ornate-looking golden trinket. It had one deep blue stone in the middle with four other stones at the points forming a—a quincunx. A couple of the stones were glowing.

"Take this amulet," said Gabriel, holding it out to Jesse. "It will help you locate the other members of the Order of the Stone. Take it, find the Order's temple, and guard it with your life."

Petra made her way over, and shortly Lukas followed right behind her.

"What? Why me?" Jesse stammered.
"You have shown yourself to be someone I can trust. I believe in you. Take the amulet—" Gabriel pushed it into his hands. "You can do this. Now go! Find the temple! The amulet will guide you!"
"You're not coming with us?"

"No," Gabriel said, "I must stay to help as many people as possible find their way."

"And I'm staying too." It was Petra who said it. Both Jesse and Lukas looked at her in disbelief. Gabriel just nodded at her and took back to the fray.

"You two," she ordered, "go through the portal and meet up with the others. I'll stay here and help Gabriel round up those people."

What? No—

No, no, they were supposed to stay together. Before Jesse could object, however, there was another crash and the entire ceiling caved in when the tentacle returned.

"Go on, Jesse, go!" Petra shouted. "Get through that portal, now!"

Jesse looked back to the portal. Lukas was already running toward it. Jesse shook his head. "No! I'm not leaving without you!"
"Yes, you are," she insisted. "The gang needs you, Jesse. Go through the portal."
Another scream caught them off guard, and they both spun around. They saw Gabriel caught in one of the tractor beams now allowed in through the open ceiling. Petra made a run for him, but before she could get to him, another of the beams made its way in, catching her as well.

Jesse hesitated. He couldn't save both of them. Unless… wait!

Jesse spun around to see Lukas standing by the portal, watching everything happen.

"Lukas," Jesse shouted at him, "get Petra!"

Lukas made eye-contact, and Jesse took that as an affirmative. He couldn't wait another second.

Jesse shoved the amulet into his pocket and ran to Gabriel's aid, leaping up and grabbing him by the foot. With one hard yank, Jesse freed him and they tumbled to the floor.

"Thank you," said Gabriel, but Jesse's attention was quickly called away.

"Jesse!" he heard Petra call,

Jesse turned back around to see Petra still caught in the beam, and Lukas still by the portal staring up, seemingly frozen.

"Petra!" Jesse called out. "No!"

He tried to get to her, but out of nowhere, a giant black tentacle swung at him. Jesse was hit with the full force of one giant swinging tentacle, sending him flying. Jesse's back slammed into something hard and his vision went purple.

« … »

The waves of death swirled about me;

the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me.

— 2 Samuel 22:5

Author's Notes

Well, this one turned out to be both surprisingly very hard… and very easy to write. Just like the last one, this chapter came out significantly shorter than I expected. I presume for both that it's because while a lot happens in them, it's very fast paced and everything is going by pretty quickly. That being said, I hope that the general quality hasn't suffered from the pacing.

- Aiden— Not super important, but I wanted to note that Aiden IS technically seen inside the convention center in the game, but again, I'm headcanoning that if the Ocelots don't win then they're not going to be allowed inside. It would be easy to say even if they lose, that Aiden would have been one of the lucky few to snag a ticket anyway, but for my purposes that was obviously unnecessary. :P

Choice Notes

- The First Real Choice — So this chapter contains what I think of as the first real choice in the game. Up to now, every choice has only effected dialogue with the most noteworthy event changing choice being the 'go back for Lukas or go ask Gabriel for help' choice. Still, even that only really effected the next scene, and nothing serious for the long run. This choice however, the choice to save Gabriel or Save Petra, is the first significant game changing choice, and it was definitely a tough one to make. However, I think you'll start to understand why I made the choice the way I did later. ;)

Glossary

- Fireskulls— This was a term I coined because I got tired of writing 'flaming skull'. In the game they're actually just called… Wither skulls. So yeah, that wouldn't have been confusing at all. :P