Jesse's eyes narrowed at the screen as she laced her fingers together, leaning forward. This did not go unnoticed, especially since his arm was still resting on her shoulders- wait his arm was still resting on her shoulders.

He snatched it away as fast as he could without drawing attention, feeling his cheeks burn bright red. "What's wrong?" he whispered to her.

"It's obvious that Ivor's not the greatest fighter. But can Petra still keep him off while she's sick?" the black-haired girl replied.

Lukas opened his mouth immediately to respond, breathing in. He paused a moment later, mouth still open, before it slowly shut again, letting out the breath that he'd taken in. "I don't know," he finally whispered back.

"Petra, just let him go," Jesse said, sounding worried, "he's not worth it."

"Sorry, Jesse," Petra responded, glaring at Ivor, "but I didn't escape one monster just to let another one get away."

Ivor's expression flickered slightly- from anger to uncertainty to, for not even a moment, sadness. His eyes were still suspiciously shiny. The audience all exchanged curious expressions.

Jesse sighed upon realizing that Petra refused to let it go, and drew her own sword. With a single, sharp flick, she knocked Ivor to the ground and away from Petra.

Ivor arched his eyebrow as he climbed to his feet. "You really have improved since I last saw you... but still. I'm the only one who can stop the Witherstorm," he said, voice sharpening again. "Not you, not the Order!"

He raised the sword again, golden blade flashing in the low lighting, levelled straight at the two girls. "Don't make yourselves the villains in my story."

He charged right at Jesse, who flicked her sword into the air quickly, blocking the swing Ivor had utilized with a clang and a spray of sparks. The two blades locked together for a moment, before Ivor shoved Jesse onto the floor. Jesse whipped back to her feet in less than a second.

Ivor raised his sword into the air in preparation for a strike, and Jesse took the opportunity to slam the flat of the blade right into his ribs, making the man stumble back in shock, before lifting her foot and slamming it right into Ivor's chest, knocking him to the floor again.

"I didn't know you were such a good swordfighter, Jesse," Lukas said, poking the girl in the cheek. She absentmindedly batted his hand away, glued to the screen.

"Neither did I."

"You're not going anywhere," Petra came up behind him, knocking the man to the side.

Ivor got back to his feet again, turning to face the two girls. "This could've all been avoided," he growled, "if you want to stop me, you're going to have to catch me, first." And he whipped out a pale blue potion and downed the whole thing in a single gulp.

"Hey, that's cheating!" Axel complained. Ivor shrugged at the glares he was now receiving.

"Look out!" Petra swung her sword down on Ivor, but he was gone, as if he hadn't ever been there in the first place. Petra quickly raced over to the bookshelves as Jesse looked around. "You're not getting out of here that easy, Ivor!" she snapped.

Ivor started racing around the room, blurring so fast that you could only see the after-effects.

Jesse suddenly let out another cry, one hand grabbing at her head. The screen zoomed in again to show Ivor holding the pale blue potion bottle up, sitting on the floor with his legs crossed.

The little spider hybrid practically crawled into his lap, staring at the sparkling bottle. "It's pretty!" she cooed, poking the bottle with her finger.

Ivor smiled slightly at the spider hybrid. Now that they thought about it, it was the first time that the man had ever smiled in this place, either onscreen or in real-life. "Do you want to see what it does?"

Jesse sat back on her heels, climbing out of his lap, clapping all of her hands together. "That'd be fun!"

Ivor uncorked the bottle and drank the whole thing in a few swallows, before climbing to his feet and then blurring around the room. He made Lukas's tail flap in the breeze, the string of a few sticks of dynamite blow out by accident, scattered a handful of redstone dust over the floor, blew Petra right into Gabriel by accident, and then skidded back to a halt in front of Jesse, finally slowing back to a normal speed.

The spider hybrid clapped again, practically beaming. "That was so cool!"

The screen zoomed out of Jesse's head again, the girl's eyes flying open in shock.

"Jesse!"

The black-haired girl's head snapped up, and the screen switched to show Ivor running right at her in slow motion, sword held out to his side in preparation to slice Jesse in half. The girl automatically threw herself backwards, all of her hands catching her in a crabwalk position as the sword brushed against her nose, barely missing her, before Ivor ran straight at Petra and knocked her to the floor.

"Petra!" Jesse shouted, eyes widening.

"Oh no!" Sparklez shouted.

"Petra!" Jace echoed what onscreen-Jesse had shouted, half-a-second later.

Petra climbed back to her feet, deflecting every hit that Ivor was trying to hit her with. Her forehead was covered in a layer of sweat, her eyes were turning even more silvery than before, and her skin was beginning to turn a pale shade of gray in exhaustion, movements getting more and more sluggish with each block, but still she refused to get out of the way.

Jesse flipped over in a rapid motion, bolted forward, and then whipped upright and slammed into Ivor using the flat of her sword, making Ivor let out a cry of shock and pain as he landed harshly on the floor.

Another gasp as the screen zoomed into Jesse's head again, the girl squeezing her eyes shut just as it did so, back into little Spider-Jesse, who was jumping around like a Mexican jumping bean, waving a wooden sword. "I hit him!" she crowed victoriously. "I got him!"

Ivor winced slightly as he grinned at the little girl from where he was on the floor. "Nice job, Jesse," he praised, before poking her in the ribs with his wooden sword gently. "Got you."

The six-year-old turned to look at him with her eyes wide and mouth open in a perfect little 'o', her short black tousled and messy from dashing around trying to get a hit on the man. "Aww, no fair!" she whined, before hopping back over and poking him with the stick again.

Lukas shook his head and started giggling a moment later, Soren smothering his own grin. Olivia had a very funny expression on her face from trying not to laugh, Petra was grinning widely, Axel was snickering, Ellegaard had her hands over her eyes and was shaking her head with a grin fixed on her face, Gabriel was outright laughing, and Magnus was cackling so hard he was doubled over.

The screen changed to show that the wooden swords had been abandoned on the floor and the practice fight (assuming that's what they'd been doing) had deteriorated into a poking session. This made the audience chuckle slightly.

"Don't tempt your fate," Ivor hissed as the screen zoomed back out, before running straight at the black-haired girl.

Jesse brought her sword up in a swift, fluid motion, blocking the hit, before flicking her blade back and forth in mostly blocking motions, knocking aside each attempt at an attack, before she finally lashed out and knocked Ivor right back onto the floor.

Ivor climbed back to his feet again, wincing visibly. "It didn't have to go this way, Jesse. You could've just let me go," Ivor said, his eyes softening very slightly.

Onscreen, Jesse frowned, looking puzzled.

And then Ivor smashed a bottle at his feet. "Now you see me, now you-" and he vanished in a spray of gray swirls.

"Crap!" Jace exclaimed, eyes widening.

Jesse looked around for the invisible enemy, but he was nowhere in sight. Laughter that wasn't hers or the redhead's filled the air as they backed away slightly, blocking the doorway. "Stay on guard!" Jesse told Petra, who nodded and lifted her sword up again.

Jesse looked around, before the screen lighted back on a potion bottle that was hovering in midair. It soared right at Jesse, whose lower arm flicked out and caught the potion bottle in her lower hand. She looked at it in surprise for a moment, before she looked back up, chucked it aside, and dove out of the way of another one.

"Coward!" shouted Milo, Ivor scowling when several members of the audience chorused agreement.

"End of the road, Ivor!" Petra growled, "we're not letting you get away with this!"

There was a very long, very pregnant silence.

"This one's on you, you puffed up fool!" And a potion went hurtling right at Petra.

Jesse's eyes widened. "NO!" she yelled, jumping in front of Petra, all of her arms moving in midair.

The potion rebounded off of a web that Jesse had woven in midair and went flying back at Ivor, just as the potion wore off.

Petra let out a little sigh of relief. "Thanks, Jesse."

"You saved my life a couple times back at Endercon. Let's just call it even at this point and leave it, mmkay?" Jesse replied, smiling back at Petra.

It shattered against him and made the man let out a startled cry and fall onto his back. He groaned a moment later and climbed back to his feet, wincing visibly. "There's no time... no time... this could've been avoided," he gasped, before limping towards the group.

"Jesse! Petra!" and Lukas raced into the room. Axel was hot on his heels, and Olivia bleeped into sight, staggering and nearly faceplanting.

Ivor snarled, looking agitated. "Even more of you?"

"We found Ivor," Jesse said.

"Thank you, Captain Obvious!" Cassie declared, making Jesse grin and smother a laugh.

"We stopped him."

Petra shot Jesse a grateful look. "Well, Jesse did, anyway."

"False," and everyone turned to look at Ivor, who had straightened up and was walking towards the group casually. "You've stopped nothing." He took another few steps, before asking conversationally, "A query... ever seen the effects of a Splash Potion of Slowness?"

Jesse's eyes widened. "Ivor-"

He smashed a dull blue potion at the group's feet, and Jesse continued in a much, much, MUCH slower voice. "- dooooonnnnn'ttttt."

The man simply walked past them, rage filling everyone's eyes as they realized what he'd just done, Jesse turning far too slowly to do anything as the screen zoomed in on her again, eyes still wide.

"Wait, another one?!" Isa exclaimed.

"Ivor!"

The man looked much more serious as he looked up, Jesse running up to him with a big smile on her face. "I thought you said you wouldn't have much time to visit after beating the dragon! Where's everyone else?"

Ivor's eyes filled with pain, and he glanced away from the spider hybrid awkwardly. "Oh... e-elsewhere. Listen, Jesse..."

"Mmhm?" Jesse innocently put her hands behind her back, looking up at the Order of the Stone member patiently and waiting.

"I don't... think I can... visit anymore."

Jesse's smile faded to a more confused look. "What...?"

"I can't- it's hard to- ... I'm sorry," Ivor apologized finally, stumbling over his words before simply shaking his head at the little girl, whose arms were dropping back to her sides as she stared at him in confusion.

"But... you never come," and Jesse's eyes began to tear up, "you never come with the others- are you angry at me? Did I do something?" She pointed at herself.

Ivor shook his head, still looking incredibly uncomfortable. It was the first emotion that wasn't anger or sarcasm or, occasionally, happiness that the audience had seen of him so far. "No, no I'm not angry at you. I'm sorry. I just- I just needed to come and say-" He hesitated for a moment, looking as though he were almost choking on the next word that he needed to get out, "goodbye."

Lukas glanced at Jesse to see her eyes were beginning to fill with tears as she stared at the screen with a perfectly blank expression, lips pressed together in a thin line.

"But- you- Ivor!" The six-year-old looked confused and as though she might burst into tears any second now.

Ivor stepped back away from the spider hybrid, looking away. "I'm sorry," he repeated again.

"Wait- don't leave-!" and she started towards him with a childishly desperate look.

Ivor's arm moved so suddenly that it blurred as he smashed a bottle at Jesse's feet, and suddenly the spider hybrid froze in place, eyes wide. Well, not quite- her foot was still moving, and she was still moving forward, but it was so slowly that she couldn't do anything.

Ivor looked at the little girl with an apologetic look, opening his mouth as though he were going to say something. He paused for a moment before slowly shutting his mouth with a shake of his head and turning around, leaving the room and shutting the door behind with a decisive thud, the screen going black as the door shut quietly.

There was a short silence, before Jesse spoke again, her voice narrating over the blackness. "History repeats itself sometimes. Everyone leaves. And sometimes... I guess they just never come back."

Every member of the audience had something in their eyes right now.

Namely, tears.

After a few moments of silence, the screen came back in to show the title screen. "Wait, that's it! That's the end of the episode?!" Magnus complained loudly, wiping his eyes quickly before anyone could see him properly. "Damn cliffhangers!"

"Are you becoming one of those people who reads something or watches a movie and HAS to know what happens next?" Ellegaard asked, brow raised.

"Shut up, Ellie, you can't tell me that you don't want to know what happens next."

Jesse was still staring at the screen, eyes gleaming with tears. Lukas looked at her, but he decided not to comment on it and instead just gave her shoulder a comforting squeeze.

Petra swiveled to look at Ivor. "Ivor," she said conversationally, "do you want to play Hide and Go Kill?"

"Wha-?" Ivor asked, before his eyes widened and his face went a shade paler. His hand went up to his black eye. "Oh-"

"I'll give you three minutes," Petra said, still lightly, checking her wrist.

Ivor sat there for a moment, frozen in place, before jumping up out of the armchair, nearly tripping over himself and six other people, and running out of the room. Something crashed in the hallway outside.

Petra sat there for another two seconds, before hopping to her feet. "Three minutes, three seconds, oh look! I'm bad at math," she said almost cheerfully, before bolting after the Witherstorm's creator. "READY OR NOT, HERE I COME!"

Ivor shrieked.


A/N: (cracks up) Poor Ivor. It's a shame Petra's so bad at math.

Welp, next two chapters are fillers! Hope you guys are looking forward to those!

RQTC: Who knows what Maplestory is? x3

rebekahtpe: Umm, MCSM. What I'm literally going to do: (half a second into the fight, I drop my sword) You win. xD xD xD

Kaos Ruin: (looks at ceiling)

AquaK13: I try xD

LunarStarsMoon: x3

S4SH4L4SH4theGaMeR101: (grins) Yes indeedy.

Emily The Avenger: (laughs) And cool! Did she work on the chapter, by the way? (Katie)

Darkbeast Dend: :3

RapidSammi: (squeals with you)

sailor. mikuchan: :3 And yes, I did say it was okay.

LittleAngelbun: Hehe xD (reads the next comment) PFFFFF xD xD

Darkbeast Dend: Lots of family fluff will start showing up, lol xD (thumbs up)

ChoyofBonk: Awwee x3 (pats you on the back) It's okayyy

CrystalTearsofFaith: Oh... (surprised) Um, thank you! I'm glad you like my writing so much. Yours is great, too!

DynamiteHunter6: Agreed xD

mEEplePeoPLe: (grins)

x.X. A.L. X.x