The group started walking up the stairs, Jesse silently leading the gang up the first flight of stairs. Axel already looked tired by the time they reached the first landing. "I hope that someday, I love something as much as Soren seems to love stairs."

Jesse snorted, but the grin faded as she looked back. Petra was the last to arrive at the landing, pausing for a moment to clutch her head in pain. Jesse stopped and waited for Petra to catch up silently, before the two of them kept heading up the stairs.

They made it up a few more flights before Petra asked, "Jesse? Could you give me a second?"

Jesse turned back this time. Petra's hands were on her knees, and her skin had this definite, sickeningly gray tinge to it. A sheen of sweat was on her face, her eyes were nearly black, and the bruise-thing seemed to have spread even more, angry purple and gray-black veins standing out violently. Petra turned her head to cough into her shoulder.

"You're just making this so much worse by not telling us," Jesse said quietly.

"I know," Petra sighed, "I just... I don't want to worry anyone."

Jace suddenly turned and wrapped his arms around Petra in a tight hug. "Petra, we ARE worried. It's obvious that something's up with you. It'd actually probably be less worrying if you told us, at this point," he said, face buried in her shoulder.

Petra blinked, glancing down at Jace, before a soft smile came over her face and she reached up to pat the boy on the back gently.

The spider hybrid turned to face Petra onscreen, staring at her with concern. "Petra? Need a hand?" She held out one of her lower arms, but Petra shook her head and straightened up, even though it looked like it took a bit too much effort.

Jesse crossed her arms and sent Petra a deadpan look, before arching her eyebrow at her.

"Really, I'm fine. I'm good. We can keep moving."

"Pushing yourself's just going to make it even worse," Gill spoke quietly, making everyone glance at him. Upon spotting Aiden's glare, he simply turned to look back at the screen again, shutting his mouth.

Onscreen, Jesse silently, and very reluctantly, turned around again, showing that Lukas and Reuben had paused only a few steps away from them, watching the two girls with worried looks. Lukas sent the spider hybrid a curious frown.

Jesse shook her head slightly. "Later," she mouthed.

Lukas's pressed his lips together, looking concerned about this, before finally giving a slow nod. Jesse and Petra quietly began to walk up the stairs, and after another moment's hesitation, he followed them.

They all finally reached the last landing, all of them looking exhausted. "So many stairs," Olivia groaned in complaint.

Jesse looked up the last flight of stairs to see a ladder. "Ahh... there's a ladder," she mumbled, crossing her arms slightly.

Axel pouted a bit, crossing his own arms. "It better not be a long one..."

Jesse went up the stairs, all of her arms moving so that they were grabbing onto the sides of the ladder, and quickly climbed up the ladder. It appeared to be a rather short one, though, so in no time at all, she was at the top of the ladder. There was a double trapdoor at the top, surrounded by something... green. Wool?

Jesse pushed open the trapdoor and climbed out, before blinking slowly.

The screen switched to show a replica of the world, complete with trees, rivers, bridges, sky, and- somehow- a sun. "What do you see?" Lukas called up.

There was a very long pause, before Cassie slowly turned to stare at Soren. "Um... what is that?" she asked, slowly.

Soren rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "That- ah- that's my End fortress."

"I think you need a therapist," Hadrian told him calmly, before wincing as Otto dug his elbow into his side with a slight glare. "What? I think he does!"

Jesse winced sheepishly and glanced at Soren. "Um... yeah, I don't mean to be rude, but... this is kind of creepy."

"I... think I'm seeing things," Jesse replied, blinking hard as if she was seeing her surroundings wrong, "It's like... some other world up here."

Lukas popped his head out of the trapdoor behind her, coming out as well. He winced and squinted against the 'sun', shielding his eyes. "Woah, so bright..." he complained a bit, looking around.

The others came up as well, staring around them as if they were seeing things. Axel was the last one to come out, shielding his eyes from the light, before he suddenly tripped with a yell. Jesse turned just in time to see the burly male trip, fall, and slam into Lukas, knocking both males to the bottom of the hill, Axel landing on top of Lukas.

Lukas put his head in his hands. Jesse patted him sympathetically.

Onscreen, Lukas just let out this tired sigh. "That's my body, Axel," he said simply, "my broken, battered body."

"The ground's squishy," Olivia commented, as Jesse walked closer to one of the trees, narrowing her eyes at it suspiciously. "Almost like carpet."

"Looks funny, too," Axel commented, squinting at the ground intently.

Jesse squinted at the tree even more carefully now that she was up close to it. "This... doesn't look like a normal tree," she called back to them, still inspecting the tree carefully.

"Glad to hear it," Lukas replied sarcastically, "now could you please get off me?"

"Sorry, dude."

Jesse reached out to touch the tree, her eyes widening as she did so. "What in the w-?! It's made of wool!"

"O-kay, it just got creepier," Petra said.

All eyes went to Soren. The builder blushed and glared at a stray strand of the carpet. "Wh-what?! I like it, okay?!"

Jesse hummed slightly, tapping her cheek thoughtfully, watching the screen intently. "Well, it's, uhh..." A pause. "... give me a minute to think of the word I'm thinking of."

Onscreen, Jesse turned back to face the others onscreen, looking quite weirded out by this little development. "The- the trees, the grass, it's all... wool!" she exclaimed, sounding more than a little disturbed.

Lukas got up, crossing his arms, a frown on his face. "Um... so... we've been resting our hopes on this guy, and he's made some sort of... artificial Happyland?" he asked, sarcastically. The hope that had been on his face a bit earlier had completely disappeared.

There was a long pause, before Axel broke it tentatively. "Well, it's real wool."

Lukas frowned at the floor, not saying anything. Onscreen, Jesse reached out and pulled the ocelot hybrid into a hug, and after a moment, he patted her on the back reluctantly. "Well, you know Soren best out of all of us... wasn't he kind of... um..." She paused, as if mentally searching for a word. "... eccentric?"

Real-Jesse snapped her fingers briskly. "Yes, that's the word I've been looking for. 'Eccentric'."

Lukas snorted a bit, rather huffily at that. "'Eccentric' is putting it nicely. I don't know. Maybe he's gotten kinda whacked since I last saw him," and his voice was rather bitter as he said that.

"Lukas..." Petra trailed off, seeming unsure what to say as she glanced to the blonde.

Onscreen, Jesse hesitated, before gently letting him go and holding him at arm's length. "Well, you heard what Ellegaard and Magnus said... he's been alone for... quite a while. So maybe he just missed home."

"Still creepy," Magnus stage-whispered.

Soren glared at him.

Apparently, that was the wrong thing for onscreen-Jesse to say.

Lukas shoved her hands off, ears and tail standing on end angrily, pupils turning to slits. "If you miss home, you go and visit. You don't build an exact replica. Look around, Jesse!" he nearly shouted at her, claws shooting out, "if the best builder of all time has spent years on this, what are the chances he'll even have that bomb?!"

"Actually, I do have the bomb," Soren interjected here.

Almost everyone in the room let out this tremendously relieved sigh.

The blonde boy whipped around, tail nearly whipping Jesse, and stormed off. "I've had enough crazy for one day."

Jesse watched him for a moment, worry showing in her eyes.

Slowly, after a few long moments of silence, the rest of the group started splitting up to look for clues to find Soren, and Jesse finally turned to look at Petra. "Petra, on a scale of 'ugh' to 'arrrghh', how bad do you feel?"

Petra had been looking a little worried about Lukas, but she snorted at this. "Some... someplace in between. But, I'm holding on. For now."

"Keep hoooolding on," Olivia sang jokingly in an attempt to lighten the mood. Maya grinned a bit at this.

"We'll make it through, we'll make it through."

"So far away, I wish you were here."

"Something, something, before all this disappears."

"Maya!" Aiden hissed at her.

Olivia shot a glare at him. "Hey, she can sing if she wants to," she snapped. "Leave her alone."

Aiden rolled his eyes over-dramatically. "It's not her singing that I'm against," he sneered. "It's who she's singing WITH-"

"Oh- For the love of Notch, Aiden, let it go already!" Jace groaned, putting his head into his hands in exasperation.

A playful grin came over Jesse's lips. "Let it go~ let it go~" she sang lightly.

Maya grinned and covered her mouth, trying not to outright laugh at the shorter female's singing. Lukas chuckled and gently patted Jesse on the back as well.

Jesse looked around the room, before back at Petra. "How d'you think Soren got out of here without leaving clues behind?" she wondered mildly.

Petra looked around the wool world. Actually, now that Jesse thought about it, that sounded pretty catchy. Wool world, wool world, wool world. Okay, she'd better stop now. "He IS the greatest builder of all time."

"Aww, you flatter me," Soren joked.

Hadrian, Mevia, Otto, Cassie, and Harper didn't say anything, although Mevia got as far as opening her mouth before pausing and then shutting her mouth again with a sigh.

"If anyone knows how to put in the secret-est of secret doors, it's him."

Jesse ran a hand through her long black hair. "Hmm... I guess I gotta go find a secret mechanism, then," she sighed a bit, before looking back up at Petra again, "I'm gonna keep looking around, then."

"Look away," Petra said lightly, although her smile seemed a bit tight.

Jesse gave Petra one last concerned look, before turning away and continuing around the area, head turning a bit as she searched around.


A/N: Wool World~

RQTC: Anyone seen the new MCSM song by TryHardNinja?

Kaos Ruin: You can (shrugs) / True.

RapidSammi: Aww xD

Emily The Avenger: (laughs)

S4SH4L4SH4theGaMeR101: (grins)

AquaK13: (laughs)

x.X. A.L. X.x