"But you're going to have to break that pane of glass," Olivia pointed out, pointing at a certain pane of glass up high on the machine, "how are you going to reach it?"

Jesse looked around for a minute, before spotting a guy bouncing on a slime block. She tilted her head thoughtfully, eyes narrowing. "Hmmm... I think I should be able to reach the glass with a slime block," she said, thoughtfully.

"Hey, that's a pretty good idea," Petra said.

Jesse approached the booth. Her eyes widened a bit as she realized the person who was running it was the person she'd tapped on the shoulder earlier. "Oh...! Hello!" she said, sounding surprised.

The woman herself looked a bit surprised. "Oh... hello. Did you find the person you were looking for, by the way?" she asked, casually.

"Hm? Oh- yeah, I did. Thanks for asking," Jesse said, still sounding surprised. "Um- one slime block, please."

The woman shook her head a bit, seemingly apologetically. "Sorry- we don't sell slime blocks here. Just slime balls," and she held up a slimy green ball, "but we've got a limited supply today, and we're only giving out two per customer." She tilted her head thoughtfully. "You could craft a slime block if you had nine slime balls..."

Jesse winced and rubbed the back of her head. "Ah, I see..."

The two of them were rescued from the rather awkward situation by Axel strolling up behind her. "A round of slime balls for everyone, please!" he requested politely, having apparently heard the conversation.

The screen cut to the four of them walking away, holding slime balls. Jesse suddenly made a soft sound, making the rest of them look at her. "This is only eight slimeballs... we need one more to make a slime block," she explained.

Petra's gold eyes narrowed. "Okay, we need another way to get some more slime, and quick," she said, after giving all the slime balls a quick count.

"On it!" And everyone split up to go look for more slime. Jesse looked down at the two slime balls in her hand, before looking up and around at the crowds.

The screen cut to a slime ball spinning in the air, before landing in somebody's hand.

The screen zoomed out to reveal Lukas tossing the slime ball.

"Oh, good," and Petra turned to look at Lukas, "Lukas will let us use his, right Lukas?"

"Of course!"

Aiden looked at Lukas as if the blonde had just grown two heads. "You'd help the Order of the Losers?"

"Aiden, it's Petra," Lukas responded, "she gave us that Nether Star, remember? Besides, why shouldn't I help them, even if Petra wasn't with them?"

"Because they're losers!"

"Great argument, there, sport," Hadrian muttered sarcastically.

Lukas frowned at him. "Yeah, so you've said. Every single time you see them. Yes, they lose the Endercon Building Competition every year. But that doesn't mean they're not good people, alright?"

Olivia turned to stare at them oddly. "Is Lukas defending us?" she asked sotto voce.

Jace stared at Lukas with a confused look. "I'm pretty sure I'm hallucinating."

"All three of us?" Axel whispered back.

"Guys, if you're hallucinating, then so is everyone else in this room," Jesse whispered back, glancing at Lukas as Aiden growled in frustration.

Onscreen, Jesse took a deep breath, before approaching Lukas. "Hey... Lukas? Could you... do me a favor?" she asked, in a rather awkward but hopeful voice.

Lukas caught the slime ball, before looking at her. "Anything's possible," he said lightly, with a small smile at the end to show he meant no harm.

Jesse smiled back. "I need slime balls... I swear I have a REALLY good explanation..."

Lukas's gaze wasn't focused on her anymore, as Axel, Olivia, and Petra came up behind Jesse. He smiled at the black-haired girl, holding out the slime ball. "Whatever you guys are doing, count me in."

"Thanks, Lukas," Petra said, before adding in an undertone to Jesse, "told you he was useful."

Harper shuddered a bit at that last word for some reason.

Jesse rolled her eyes at Petra, but she was smiling anyway. Jesse went around collecting slime balls from everyone as Axel frowned at Lukas. Lukas had to crane his head back to meet the taller male's eyes. "Aw, man... this guy isn't actually cool, is he?"

Olivia crossed her arms and raised her eyebrow at him. "Remains to be seen."

Jesse headed over to a nearby crafting table, placing slime balls down. Lukas and Axel's voices still could be heard while she did that. "So, uh... you guys been working together long? You've got good chemistry."

"Are you jealous?" That was Axel.

"I'm just saying, I think it's cool that you have a team that works so well together," Lukas responded.

"You're totally jealous."

Jesse laughed at this, making Axel grin at her.

Onscreen Jesse smirked too, before the slime balls all shivered together into a solid, green block. "Ta-daaaa! One slime block." She grinned at it, before her face fell at the sight of it. "... gross."

Olivia reached out with both hands automatically. "Let me have that-" The block seemed to jump into her hands automatically, arms going rather rigid as she took ahold of it. Both girls looked at the block, before Olivia turned away awkwardly and went to a spot between the machine and a nearby booth. "Riiiight..." And the block jumped back out. "Here."

Jesse turned to Axel. "Gimme a boost!"

Axel helped the girl up, her hand still a little shy of the roof of the booth-

A string of silk shot out of her hand and attached to the top.

Jesse looked around quickly before she climbed rapidly, hiding it with her body as she squirmed onto the roof and scraped off the string as she climbed on top of the roof of the booth. She looked at the slime block, before backing away. She hesitated, before running forwards, launching herself off of the booth, feet slamming into the block solidly, before rebounding into the air. She let out a laugh. "Wheeee!" She drew her fist back in midair and solidly slammed it into the pane of glass, shattering it and allowing chickens to flood from the opening.

She landed in another parkour roll, ending up on her butt as the booth owner ran past her. "My poultry! My precious poultry!" he wailed.

The usher charged forward as well. "Keep your eyes closed! They'll peck out your eyes!" he warned, just as a chicken bowled him over, hopping all over him- including his face.

Jesse blinked at this. "These chickens are vicious," she joked, before running for the keynote, followed by her friends. This went completely unnoticed due to the usher having gotten knocked over by all the chickens.

"Okay, so we got past the usher," Petra said, hopping in place, "one thing down, lots more to go!"

"You're all quite stubborn, aren't you?" Lizzie asked them.

"No one messes with Petra," Jesse, Jace, Axel, Olivia, and Lukas chorused in unison.

Petra grinned at this.

The screen came back on to show the five of them running into the keynote- six if you included Reuben. The show hadn't started yet, so nobody was there. Ivor was nowhere in sight, though.

"Where'd he go?" Petra demanded.

Jesse looked around, before pointing at a door that was slightly ajar. "Well, that seems as likely a place as anywhere else... cliche, though."

They all rushed for the door, but Lukas paused a few meters away. "What do we do once we catch him?"

Everyone looked at one another, as Lukas continued, "there are a million ways to play this."

"Whatever we have to," Jesse said coolly.

Lukas seemed a bit taken aback by this answer. "You're way more intense than I gave you credit for, Jesse," he said, sounding surprised.

"I know," Petra agreed. "Fighting those monsters on the bridge, threatening Aiden... I never would've guessed."

Jesse's faint smile faded as she turned to stare directly ahead. There was a long pause, before she finally said, a little more brusquely than usual, "Yeah, well, I'll do anything when it comes to my friends."

Jesse smiled innocently. "If you mess with my friends, I will break you," she said cheerfully, before disappearing through the door, leaving Lukas to blink after her nervously.

Jesse poked her head around the corner at the bottom of the staircase, eyes widening. "Is... this what we were expecting?" she asked slowly.

The others poked their heads around the corner as well, their own eyes widening.

"I still can't believe you're helping them," Gill mumbled.

Lukas opened his mouth to say something, hesitated, and then shut it with a slight shake of the head.

It seemed to be some sort of library, potions and books shoved onto every shelf and available space except for the floor. "What IS this place?" Olivia wondered, looking around tentatively.

"Looks like the basement," Jesse murmured, "I guess he must've gone out a different way or something, then."

"You kids better not touch anything," Ivor growled.

Petra glared at him. "We wouldn't even BE there if you'd just stuck to your end of the deal, you little sh-"

"Let's just watch the thing, okay?" Jace interrupted loudly before Petra could unleash a twenty-word-long string of swears.

"I'll bet you anything my skull's down here," Petra said seriously, looking around the basement.

The screen cut to show Axel walking excitedly past shelves, already eyeing some of the stuff. "And if we find anything else to steal along the way, so be it, right?" he asked, eyes practically glowing with interest.

"I just told you not to touch anything!" Ivor snapped.

"He can't hear you," Jesse reminded him.

"Take it all! Take it all! Take it all!" Magnus chanted, the gladiators joining in with a little too much enthusiasm.

Petra scowled at Axel. "Axel- that's not what we're here to do."

"I did say we should do whatever we had to..." Jesse murmured. This was obviously not the answer Petra wanted to hear, because she turned her scowl onto the black-haired girl. Axel took advantage of Jesse's comment.

"And if the guy's not here, then what we have to do is steal."

"Yes!" Magnus fist-pumped the air, nearly elbowing Soren in the face, "I like this guy!"

Axel's grin was practically splitting his face.

"I don't want to stoop to his level," Petra was quick to argue right back.

Jesse nodded at last. "Let's just get the skull and get out of here- this place is kinda creepy."

Magnus, Axel, and the gladiators all let out a loud groan of disappointment. Ivor let out the slightest sigh- although if it was relief or something else, no one could tell.

Axel scowled. "No one ever lets me have any fun," he complained, jokingly.

"We let you hang out with us, don't we?" Jesse was quick to reply. She straightened up and trotted down the stairs. "The faster we find what we're looking for, the faster we can get out of here."

Everyone split up, dispersing among the shelves. Even Reuben trotted off to go have a look. Jesse's eyes skimmed the shelves, but as she was about to turn a corner, she stopped. Slowly, she backtracked a step so that she was staring at the shelves, a single book standing out to her- an old, red, leatherbound volume with a faint symbol and words etched into the binding.

Ivor's brow furrowed. "Huh. I don't think that book's actually in my library..." he muttered, under his breath, although everyone could hear it loud and clear. "I wonder what it is..."

Jesse leaned closer to the book. B.O.A., the binding read. She raised her eyes to look at the symbol on the binding as well. It looked like a human head, but halfway across the symbol changed to a wolf head that flawlessly mixed with the human one.

Jesse's eyes widened, and the softest gasp escaped her mouth. She reached out automatically and pulled the book off the shelf, a thin volume that had maybe 100 pages in it, maximum. She flipped through it, different handwriting styles in the book that repeated, before shutting it and putting it in her pocket. "Who knows, maybe this thing is useful," she said, her hands quivering slightly.

Everyone glanced at Ivor, but he didn't actually complain at this- probably since he didn't own the book.

Turning the corner, she spotted Petra rummaging through a chest. Petra took out something that Jesse couldn't see, since her back was blocking it. "Oh, what do we have here..." She suddenly pivoted and lashed out, making Jesse jump back in just time as the gold sword tip scratched her nose. "Jeez, decapitate me, would ya?" Jesse joked.

The redhead chuckled awkwardly. "Ahaha- sorry." She gave the sword a cursory look. "Anyway, it's too heavy. And too soft."

"But super flashy," Jesse teased.

Petra gave the blade a look. "Yeah. Hey, you still have that one stone sword I gave you, right?"

Jesse sighed and looked down at the ground. "Nope, I had it to give it to some butcher to save Reuben's life." Petra winced sympathetically at this.

"Jeez... well, I guess it was for a good cause. Here," and she pushed the gold sword into Jesse's hands.

Jesse raised her eyebrows at Real-Petra. "What happened to not stooping to his level?"

"Being armed in case something bad happens is more important," Petra responded promptly. Ivor scowled at the redhead. "Oh, come on!" he complained.

"Thanks," Jesse said with a small smile, sheathing it.

Petra grinned back at the dark-haired female. "Don't lose that one," she joked.

Jesse trotted along again, until she came across a glowing violet potion with luminous glass. "Oh, hey!" she exclaimed quietly, sounding impressed, "check this out!"

"Oh, no no no no no," Ivor practically chanted, having gone almost pure white, "leave that alone! Get out of my basement, you idiots!"

"You're not going to believe me," Axel said, making Jesse jump a bit, "but I SWEAR I had a dream about this. Okay, potion... I know this is a big step, but I'd be honored if you'd come home with me."

Jesse shook her head at him. "Axel, no. Make yourself useful-" Harper shuddered again. "- and go find that skull."

"I am..." and then Axel took the potion anyway.

"NO!" Ivor literally screamed, making Harper flinch and turn to him with a look of surprise, fuming and almost white with rage and fear as he launched himself out of the chair. The screen quickly paused, courtesy of Jesse, since she was still commandeering the remote. "YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU JUST DID!"

"I-Ivor, ca-calm down," Ellegaard said, sounding startled. "None of this has even happened yet-"

"No, you don't understand!" Ivor was pacing the floor so rapidly that he actually made the carpet wrinkle under his feet. "If they take the potion- and if I lose control of-" Dawning horror in his eyes. "Oh, blast...!"

"Lose control of... what?" Jace asked, slowly, eyes narrowing in confusion.

"What's going on?" Gabriel's tone sharpened as he stood up, taking one step towards the pacing man. "What are you planning to do? Ivor, why did you need a Wither Skull?"

Ivor turned to glare at Gabriel, venom in his voice and hatred practically burning in his eyes. "Oh, you'll see. You'll all-" He paused, his gaze moving from Gabriel to Jace to someone else off to the side. "... Jesse?" he asked, finally, sounding confused.

Jace turned around to see what Ivor was staring at.

Jesse's knees were drawn up to her chest as best as she could with Reuben still in her lap, her body trembling violently, eyes squeezed shut so tightly that it actually forced tears from under her eyelids, hands clamped tightly over her ears. There was this almost animalistic, but nearly inaudible keening sound, and after a moment everyone realized that it was coming from Jesse.

"Hey... Jesse?" Jace reached out to touch Jesse's shoulder, but she scooted away from his touch, trembling like a leaf. She seemed to be trapped in some sort of dark place that they couldn't get her out of.

"Jesse?" Jace repeated softly, before reaching out and taking ahold of her wrists carefully. Jesse's trembling abruptly ceased, before slowly opening her eyes to stare at Jace. There was a moment of uncomprehension as she stared at Jace, green eyes dull and blank, before she said, blankly yet lightly, "Did I do it again?"

"Do what again?" This was from Maya, who looked totally perplexed by this order of events.

Jesse stared at Jace for a minute, before completely relaxing and turning back to face the screen. "It's nothing. Let's just get back to watching this. Grab my wrists if I ever do that again."

"What was-"

"I don't want to talk about it, if you don't mind my saying so." Her tone was light and conversational, but that one sentence brought whatever discussion might've happened to an abrupt halt.

Everyone stared at her, before turning back to the screen as she pressed the play button again.

Jesse was giving Axel a deadpan look. "Uhh, nope, you're literally doing the exact opposite of what I just asked you to do. Besides, there's no way he's not going to notice his fancy potion's missing."

Axel looked around quickly. "A good thief covers his tracks," and he snagged a nearby bottle of violet potion that didn't glow. Actually, unless you stared at it for a minute, it was difficult to tell the difference. He popped the glowing bottle into place, loudly whispered, "Fixed it!" and went back off.

Jesse rolled her eyes with a smile. "Oh, yeah. The perfect crime."

She glanced at where the violet potion had been sitting, before walking over and toggling the lever that had been behind it. The bookshelf Olivia had been scrutinizing made a loud clicking sound as it slid down.

Ivor's teeth gritted. "They found it," he hissed, eyes narrowing. "Dammit, they found it."

The bookshelf disappeared into the floor to reveal a T made of some strange... sand, or something, with a glowing, machine-like block in the center. A chest rested at the foot of the T.

The Order of the Stone all gasped in unison, the color draining from their faces.

"Ivor," Soren said, voice shaky, "what- what are you doing?"

"Why do you have the Command- how do you have the Command Block?" Ellegaard asked, turning to stare at Ivor.

"What's a 'Command Block'?" Nell asked, wonderingly. Nobody answered her question.

"Is that Soul Sand?" Petra wondered.

Onscreen, Jesse frowned at the setup, almost as if it were familiar.

"What is this stuff?" Olivia asked.

"Soul Sand," Petra replied immediately, "it's everywhere in the Nether."

Olivia stepped forward, reaching towards the block with a strange look on her face. "I wonder what that block in the middle is... it's almost... pulsing. Maybe if I could just-"

Jesse seized Olivia's arm, cutting off the dark-skinned girl with this utterly panicked expression on her face. Olivia's fingers had been mere centimeters from touching the block. "Are you insane?! Don't just touch it!" she whisper-shouted, "it could be dangerous!"

Olivia nodded at this. Jesse let go of Olivia's arm and said, less panicked, "Remember what we're all here for- find that skull."

Olivia nodded again, and Jesse turned to look at the chest in front of the T. She leaned down to open it.

The screen switched to show Jesse lifting the lid of the chest, her eyes widening. She froze stock-still, before speaking, in a strangely affected voice, "Um, so, good news, weird news, bad news. Good news, I found the skull. Weird news..."

Petra's expression changed to a scowl as she leaned to look over Jesse's shoulder. "What the hell? Why'd I risk my neck for that skull if he's already got two other ones?" she asked, sounding extremely annoyed.

"That's... part of the bad news." Jesse's position still hadn't changed from where she was holding the lid open. There was a long pause, before she spoke unsteadily, "I think this guy's trying to build a Wither."


A/N: Oh boy Ivor's in trouble now

RQTC: Are you hyped for the next chapter? I know I am :3

LittleAngelbun: Yee :3 Same tho, fam xD

RapidSammi: (laughs) Don't worry, that happens to meh all the diddly-darn time. And I'm glad you do! (laughs) I'm glad to see you like this chapter so much and AH GOSH MAH EARS (falls over) xD

Meow Shadow: No problem! I'm glad to hear you like this, and I hope you like my other ones, too!

AquaK13: (laughs) Yeah, that's a good point.

Guest: (laughs) True that

pensuka: They don't really know what to make of it, honestly xD

x.X. A.L. X.x