The screen faded back in to Jesse and Lukas toppling backwards out of the portal and hitting the ground hard. They slowly got to their feet as the screen zoomed out to show Olivia, Axel, and Reuben waiting for them. The ground seemed to be made out of some strange... stone... thing, and lava and fire surrounded them thickly.

"Where's Petra?" Axel asked.

Lukas's face was pure white with fear. He was also starting to tremble violently, ears drooping so that they flattened against his head. "I'm sorry," he whispered, staring into space, "oh, Notch, I'm sorry."

Jesse simply shook her head and opened her mouth to say something, but all that came out was a gasp.

"Oh, jeez," Lukas said, rubbing his head and wincing, "I'm really sorry I wasn't able to help you out there, Jesse."

"It's fine," Jesse said immediately, "I'm sure Petra is fine." Her voice faltered a second later. "Well, at least, I mean I hope she is..."

"What are you saying?" Axel asked.

Jesse shook her head again, as if not sure what to say. Olivia picked up this time, fear practically saturating her voice. "Jesse? What's he talking about?"

The black-haired girl cleared her throat, a bit shakily, before answering. "It- it was chaos. There- there wasn't much I could do," she said finally, voice shaking slightly.

Lukas nodded, still staring into blank space. "Jesse's right," he said faintly.

"Petra's still up there," Jesse finished, all six of her arms crossing within their sets, making her shiver a bit, as if she was unused to the sensation.

"I got scared," Lukas admitted finally in a whisper, lifting his eyes to meet them all in the eye, his face still the shade of paper. "Just for a second."

Axel's eyes hardened. "You got scared?" He stepped towards the ocelot hybrid, who took a step back, starting to shake again.

"I'm sorry," and Lukas's voice cracked as he repeated, "oh Notch, I'm sorry."

"You got scared and all you can say is you're sorry?" Axel growled.

"Easy, big guy," Petra said quickly. "It could've happened to anyone. Besides, I wasn't going to go through the portal anyways, remember?"

Axel didn't answer, eyes narrowing at the screen.

"Back off, Axel," Olivia put in, as Jesse went over and put her hand on Lukas's shoulder. He stopped shaking and turned to look up at her. She gently tugged on his arm and pulled him back to his feet as Axel stomped towards the portal.

"We gotta go back."

Olivia stepped in front of it, blocking his path. "No!" she protested, "we just have to wait. Think about what you're walking into."

Jesse nodded in agreement. "Olivia's right. There's nothing we can do. We'd all just end up getting ourselves killed. Besides, Petra's tough. She's half Blaze. She'll be fine."

"Yeah, what she said," Petra said, giving Axel a smile. "I appreciate that you'd go back for me, but I'm kinda glad they stopped you."

Axel just sighed. "I hope you don't get yourself killed."

"Maybe... but..." Axel was suddenly cut off by Lukas, who was pointing at the portal. "Hey! There she is!" the blonde exclaimed.

The purple swirls in the archway swayed and wobbled, indicating someone was coming through.

"Come on, come on..." Jesse whispered, staring at the portal hopefully.

But it wasn't Petra who fell through the portal. No, who fell through the portal was the man who'd started the whole mess in the first place. Jesse's hopeful look fell as Ivor scrambled to his feet.

"Ivor?" Soren asked, sounding surprised.

Ivor's eyes hardened into a glare upon seeing who was standing there. "You again?" he sneered.

Whatever anyone would've said next, it was interrupted as a tentacle thrashed through the opening and curled in on itself, grabbing at thin air. Jesse dove out of the way with a shriek, Axel fell on his bottom in surprise and scooted away, Olivia bleeped several feet away in a spray of sparks, and Lukas let out a yowl as he bolted several feet away, hair standing up on end.

The tentacle thwacked against the side of the portal, wrapping around it and squeezing. The portal cracked, purple warping, before falling apart completely, the tentacle vanishing back through it moments before it disappeared altogether.

The audience gaped.

"Oh no," Olivia groaned. "How is anyone supposed to get through? How's Petra supposed to get through?"

"I guess we'll have to find a different way," Petra said softly.

Onscreen, the group stared at the portal in varying levels of horror, Jesse slowly catching her breath and looking at Ivor.

He caught her eye and glowered at her. "You ruined everything," he accused her.

Jesse's fists tightened, and she stared at the ground.

"Oh, crud," Jesse sighed, leaning forward onto one elbow. "Looks like I'm about to start blaming myself for everything."

"Do you do that?" Jace asked her.

Jesse let out a short bark of laughter. "Yeah. When things go really wrong, I manage to convince myself that I'm the reason everything got so messed up. I guess that's 'cause of the way I was raised, I guess."

Unnoticed by her, several members of the audience arched their eyebrows at each other.

Jesse bit her lip onscreen as Ivor continued, just as harshly as before, "Don't pretend you didn't know, thief. You took my most valuable potion and what should've been my moment of triumph!"

"I- I didn't take it!" Jesse protested, but her voice had dropped to a whisper, and it was obvious she was starting to tremble. She dashed her hand across her eyes, her fists clenching even more tightly. "I didn't take the potion- you're the one who set off a Wither in a theater full of people!"

"A Wither I could control," Ivor corrected, "until you showed up! There's nothing left up there! Nothing but that Wither Storm."

"Witherstorm... huh, kinda a catchy name," Magnus hummed.

Ellegaard glared at him. "Really? You're doing that NOW?"

"What? It is!"

Jesse shook her head again, making her barrette slip down and a curtain of hair drop in front of her face. "I... didn't do anything..." Her voice faltered and broke at the end.

Olivia blinked and then looked worried. "Jesse...? Are you okay?" she asked, sounding slightly alarmed.

Jesse reached up, before pulling her hand away to see sparkling droplets on her fingers- she'd started to cry. She quickly rubbed her arm over her eyes to get rid of the rest of the tears. "Y-yeah."

"Why are we wasting time talking to this jerk?" Axel asked, putting an arm around Jesse and giving her what was probably supposed to be a comforting squeeze, but what really made Jesse squeak as he squashed some of the air out of her.

Jesse chuckled faintly and shook her head. Axel grinned sheepishly at her.

"We have to go Petra-"

Ivor's eyes widened. "The girl! I saw her."

"What?" Lukas asked immediately, his head snapping back up to look at the man.

"While I was running towards the portal, I passed her. She was running in the opposite direction. Such bravery." A short pause. "Of course, there's a fine line between bravery and stupidity."

Jace's eyes hardened.

"And your friend has crossed it."

Jesse shook her head, pulling the left wave of hair out of the way of her face, a nearly blank frown on her face. "Don't talk about her like that," she said, in a low and scary voice that had the barest quiver to it from crying just now. Her blood-red eye glowed, and in the hellish landscape of the Nether, dramatic warped shadows were being thrown over her face.

"That- that is creepy," Cassie said, shivering a little bit. "That is really creepy, you know that?"

"Oh Notch yeah, I'm fully aware," Jesse agreed, shivering a little herself.

Ivor started back for a moment, looking taken aback, before regaining his composure. Jesse adjusted her barrette back into place and let go of her left wave of hair again as he spoke. "Through that tunnel-" he pointed at said tunnel- "is a network of minecarts built by the Order of the Stone. It's your only way out."

"Wait, so he's helping us now?" Olivia looked a bit confused. "I'm starting to think he's bipolar or something."

"I'm perfectly sane, thank you," Ivor snapped back at her.

"I never said you weren't," Olivia replied, deceptively calmly.

"... I guess we should head that way," Axel agreed grudgingly a moment later.

Lukas nodded. "Time's a-wasting, let's go."

Jesse turned to look at Ivor oddly. "What about you?"

"What about me?"

Jesse spread all six of her arms out in a questioning motion. "How are you going to get out of here?" she clarified.

"Yeah, how do we know you're not luring them into some kind of trap?" Petra asked, narrowing her eyes at Ivor.

Ivor rolled his eyes. "Why would I even need to bother? They'd probably die faster without me leading them into some sort of trap."

"Was that meant to be comforting, or...?" Jesse asked, giving him a bewildered look.

"I'll use my imagination," Ivor responded sarcastically.

Jesse glared at him, but before she could snap at him, a sound like a child whimpering or crying cut through the air. All of the teenagers immediately looked around. "What was that?" Axel wondered.

"Um..." Petra scratched her head, looking slightly awkward. "Very, very bad news."

"I would wish you good luck," Ivor said, turning back to the group, "but luck won't carry you through the Nether. You have my sympathies."

Jesse rolled her eyes at him. "Gee, that's so much more valuable. Thank you so much," she snarked back.

Jace chuckled at the black-haired girl's sarcasm. She smiled back at him.

Ivor took out a potion and drank it, pink swirls of smoke wisping off of him as he began to glow. And then, suddenly, he was gone, the empty potion bottle clinking to the floor.

The cry sounded again, and they all turned to see a big, white monster floating up behind them. Jesse let out a little gasp as it made another sound, but sounding much angrier, and the eyes opened, revealing glowing red orbs that rivaled Jesse's.

"Oh Notch," Gill said. "Is that what I think it is?"

"Probably," Ellegaard said in a faint sort of voice. "That, my acquaintances, is a ghast."

Jesse and the others started backing away from it as it stared at them. "Run?" Jesse asked conversationally.

"Run," Olivia agreed, just as conversationally, before they all turned tail and bolted for the tunnel Ivor had pointed out, the ghast floating after them. Passing a zombie pigman, they skidded to a stop at a little hill, where six minecarts sat on some tracks. Without a word, they bolted for the minecarts, just as a fireball slammed into the area above it and made several of the stone-like blocks topple to the ground.

Jesse vaulted into the one behind Reuben, Lukas jumping in a moment later and crouching on the floor of his, Olivia bleeping into sight into the one behind him, and Axel gave the carts a good hard shove before hopping into his. The carts started moving, before hitting some powered rails and practically leaping away from the area, the ghast giving angry little cries behind them but giving no indication of following them.

The screen faded to black.


A/N: Ohhhhh that was such a fun chapter to write. Hard to write in Jesse's crying naturally, but I think I did okay xD

I just realized I never answered the RQTC of the last chapter. It was a recommended app in the Washington Post xD so I decided to buy it.

RQTC: Chocolate or vanilla?

Chocolate.

S4SH4L4SH4theGaMeR101: Glad you like it so far!

Guest: Nice! I haven't watched Stacy before, but nice!

AquaK13: That's cool!

MissyMattingly: Cool, cool :3

Kaos Ruin: Nope, it's more like she's from a different timeline where they don't exist... I think xD I'm literally making this part up as I go, so xD

Luna96: That was an excellent decision xD

Meow Shadow: Cool! And sure, of course I don't mind :3

sailor. mikuchan: (laughs)

RapidSammi: (joins in on the screaming)

DynamiteHunter6: Here you go!

x.X. A.L. X.x