Midnight: Huh, she already has the rest of episode one written? Well then, that makes things easier. I suppose I'll just post this one for her, maybe the next few if she's alright with it.

It was starting to get dark out by the time I stopped running.

"Really starting to wish I made a better axe now…" I muttered to myself, pulling out my poorest excuse for a weapon, a nearly broken wooden axe.

I called out for Dipper, but heard nothing in response. Truthfully, I was also looking for Rueben, but no doubt Jesse would either find him first or assume that I stole him if I did. I listened closely for any sign of either animal companion, but still found nothing.

"What are you doing out here?"

I whipped around faster than I felt like I should've been able to, my grip on the axe tightening, only to see Jesse, his arms folded and glaring at me for some reason (Then again, I nearly hit him with the axe).

"Jesse?" I finally asked, after an internal debate on whether or not I should know his name in canon by now. "I was looking for my friend, Dipper."

"Dipper?" His glare dropped, replaced with confusion, right as I realized he probably would have no idea who I'm talking about.

"He chased your pig out here after Aiden set that costume on fire." After a moment, I added under my breath, "That jerk."

There was an awkward silence between us for a minute, then Jesse spoke again.

"Well, we'll look for them together, but don't get in the way." I nodded, it sounded fair enough. Axel and Olivia must've gone with him if their building was destroyed, but they were nowhere to be seen.

We looked around in the area for a while, but then I looked up and saw something.

"Hey, Jesse, I see smoke over there!" Jesse turned his head so fast that I was surprised he didn't hurt his neck, and ran past me. I went a different way, forgetting to even tell him that I was doing so to cover more ground (Which would've been the excuse I'd give him, but of course I already knew where Rueben and maybe Dipper were).

I made it to the cave and river before him, and decided to take my chances in the cave. It was a straightforward walk, but I got jumped by a spider before it abruptly stopped trying to attack me and returned to wherever its home was.

"What the heck just happened?" I asked, after standing there for three whole minutes, which should've been more than enough time for Jesse to catch up to me, but he didn't, so I pressed on.

Finally, I found Rueben, scared and trembling. But no Dipper. I gave him a carrot I found, which calmed him down a bit and made him trust me a bit more.

Just as I was about to ask where my own friend was, Jesse caught up to me from the river, Dipper right by his side. Jesse saw Rueben and was just as relieved as I was to see him okay. So that was the end of our temporary friendship/partnership.

Or it would've been, had we not been ambushed by hordes of mobs.

After some running, they backed all four of us into a corner. Jesse and I tried to fend them off with our respective weapons, but of course, neither were very long-lasting. I expected Jesse to tell Rueben to run, but he didn't.

"There's too many of them, buddy. Don't leave that spot, no matter what. You hear me? I've got you." Almost immediately after he finished that sentence, a zombie snuck behind us and managed to hit Rueben, giving him a black eye. Jesse took care of that one, but more were getting closer.

As the moon rose higher, something… strange started happening. Despite the fact that it was now getting late into the night, I could see as though it were the middle of the day. I was unarmed now, but felt oddly powerful, like I was holding an enchanted netherite sword. During the battle, when I still had a weapon, and then earlier when the spider attacked me, I'd taken damage, but now, I couldn't feel it anymore, almost like it disappeared entirely. Driven by fury and fear, I put out both of my hands…

And as though a strong burst of wind appeared out of nowhere, every monster in front of us was launched back, far into the grass and trees. The force of the impact killed some of them instantly, but others had been lucky enough to not be thrown into a tree or a stone wall, and were able to get back up and start lurching toward us yet again.

Jesse and I were stunned into silence. When I tried to do it again, nothing huge happened, just a small burst of wind(?) that sent a zombie back two blocks. A spider took the opportunity to attack Jesse, and before I could try to get it off, Petra leaped down and tore it away, stabbing it multiple times with her pickaxe.

"Come on, let's get out of the open." If she had seen whatever just happened, she didn't say anything.

Jesse, Rueben, Dipper and I wordlessly followed her, Jesse picking up the string the spider had dropped on the way.

Petra led us into a cave, barely lit by torches.

"I want to show you two something." While she and Jesse talked, I tried to piece together what on earth happened in the forest.

Do you know something, mystery voice in my head?

Maybe.

Do you or do you not?

I do, but you'll have to find out on your own.

Gee, thanks for the help.

With the mystery voice's unhelpful input, I decided to tune back into the conversation in front of me.

"Yeah, but have you ever seen…" Petra pulled out a wither skull and showed it off. "A wither skull?"

"Wow…" I whispered, though they could still hear me.

"Fresh from the Nether."

"That's insane, Petra. You could've gotten yourself killed." Though I, of course, saw no real reason to worry until much later, I could understand why Jesse was so worried about her.

She laughed. "Don't worry so much. I can handle myself."

We started walking again as she explained the reason she had it.

"In a single day, you went to the Nether, you killed a wither skeleton… I mean, I did build a super-cool statue, and… nevermind, but still. It's pretty sweet being you, huh?" Jesse looked at me for a moment mid-sentence, likely about to say something about what happened a few minutes ago, but decided against it.

"You know… you guys could come with me." Jesse said yes to the offer (Not like he had a choice anyway), but I had to think for a minute.

"I don't think I should, the other Ocelots are probably wondering where I am. Well, maybe not Aiden, but…"

"Your loss."

We approached the crafting table, but there wasn't enough stone in there for me to have an axe and Jesse to have a sword, so we both just made some swords and moved on.

Looking off the bridge, I wasn't the least bit surprised to see the build my team made being shown at Endercon. The beacon lit the sky with different colors and my flag supported it with pride.

"Aw, man. Looks like Lukas and his Ocelots won again." Jesse was right back to glaring, notably still looking at the Ocelot on the back of my jacket.

"Sorry, Jesse." I apologized, really for no reason. Jesse just rolled his eyes, clearly not seeing it as sincere.

"But you've got to admit, that beacon does look pretty sweet." Petra admitted, sensing the tension between Jesse and I.

"Yeah, yeah. I just wanted this to be the year we finally beat that jerk."

"You know, Lukas may be kind of arrogant, but he has come through for me in tricky situations." Seeing that Jesse turned his glare onto her, Petra added, "You might wanna get to know him, just in case." A giant wither monster with tentacles destroys the world or something.

"Yeah, you might be right." He said, much to my surprise.

"I'm just saying, if you run into him at Endercon, try talking to him."

"I don't need a lecture on the power of collaboration, Petra."

"I don't know about that." I accidentally said out loud. Before Jesse could reply to that, Petra saved me there too.

"If you need more help with it, I could give you a lecture on the power of my fists. It's short, but deadly."

We decided to hurry after that.

Midnight: That was a lot easier than I expected. Almost makes me wonder why she doesn't do this for any other story. Well, I guess there is that one Underfell story on Quotev that she technically wrote ahead of time, but nothing like this.

Midnight?

Midnight: Legend! I posted a chapter for you!

A/Ns and everything?

Midnight: Mhm.

Great! Saves me the work.

Midnight: I also may or may not have... invited someone.

What.

Midnight: You know Zenna, right? Right, you know her. We're all good...

...

Midnight: Oh...

You know what? I'm fine with this.

Midnight: Wait, really?

Yeah, I can't stop you anyway, so might as well.

Midnight: Yess! My new bestie!

One, since when did you call anyone your 'bestie', two, you two barely know each other!

Midnight: That's what you think.

Okay then. See you guys next time!

-LegendEmpress

Midnight: Nailed it!

-And Midnight