An Enderman came up to the two Endermen, and Jesse tilted her head back to look at it. It slowly leaned forward, getting right into Jesse's face, the spider hybrid stiffening and standing perfectly still for a few moments. The Enderman slowly straightened back up to stare right into Olivia's eyes, the Enderman hybrid somehow staring straight into its eyes evenly.

The Enderman finally wandered away.

Petra- and many other members of the audience, for that matter- let out a long breath that they hadn't even realized they'd been holding.

"You look for Soren," Jesse instructed Olivia, having to look up quite a significant distance to meet Olivia's eyes, "I'll see if I can finish the shape. Maybe that'll get Soren's attention"

Olivia nodded slowly. "Good luck," she said, in a much more 'Enderman-like' voice that sent chills up several members of the audience's back.

Real-Olivia scooted so that she was sitting behind Axel.

Jesse wandered into the crowd of Endermen, but the suit apparently worked, because none of them actually looked at her. Still, she maintained a safe distance from them, before coming to a stop, having spotted a clay block. There was only one problem. Tiny, really. An Enderman was holding it.

Jesse slowly took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Well... I need six clay blocks. And this guy's got the only block around."

"Uhh," Lukas said slowly, face going perfectly pale, "please tell me you're not about to do what I think you're about."

The girl reached up after a moment and rubbed her temples. "The things I do to save the world..."

"Oh." Soren had turned extremely pale himself. "You don't want to do that- you really don't want to do that."

Onscreen, Jesse went up to the Enderman, which didn't even look down at her. She carefully reached out, still looking up at the Enderman, before taking the block in her hands. The Enderman's head moved so that it was staring at her, and Jesse immediately stiffened. When it didn't react, she slowly began to move backwards at a snail's pace, pulling the block out of the Enderman's unresisting hands.

However, the moment she put it in her pocket, the Enderman started shaking and making angry hissing sounds. Jesse hissed back, but apparently spider hisses and Enderman hisses were different, because it started to screech angrily. "Oh... damn. Damn, damn, damn, damn, damn," Jesse repeated, her face going perfectly pale beneath the Enderman mask.

"Annnnd she did it anyway," Soren sighed.

"It's not like I can hear you!"

"What made you think it was a good idea to take a block from an Enderman?!" Lukas almost yelled at her, voice rising into a hysterical squeak.

Jesse quickly whirled around and began to walk away rapidly, walking to what looked like a square in the ground, made up of dyed wool and glass panes. It looked like some sort of building grid. Jesse put down a block in the far top right corner, biting her lip as more and more Endermen teleported closer to her, hissing and spitting angrily. "Ooooh, I hope Soren's watching," she groaned.

"I'm sure you got my attention the moment you took that Enderman's block," Soren replied, faintly grouchily.

Jesse did her best to quickly finish the design, hands shaking in fear, before stepping back, looking at the building grid on the ground. "Okay, false evidence of Endermen intelligence, accomplished," she said, but it was obvious that she was terrified right now. Real-Jesse didn't look like she was doing much better.

Onscreen, Jesse looked around frantically and spotted Olivia, who seemed to be trying to get closer to Jesse, but she was literally surrounded by Endermen right now, all of them hissing and spitting angrily. It didn't leave Olivia any room to teleport- not unless Olivia teleported right onto Jesse's head. Jesse looked around, spinning in a little circle, eyes widening desperately.

"Tell me when it's over," Olivia squeaked, burying her head in Axel's shoulder. Axel looked at her before patting her on the head and turning back to the screen, twisting the sleeve of his hoodie so tightly that it nearly tore.

"I am sorry about this," a voice spoke, making Jesse's head snap around in the direction of the voice as another Enderman approached her. "But it has to look real."

Jesse barely had time for her eyes to widen before the 'Enderman' raised its long arm and whacked her right across the head.

There was a short pause before Jesse said, quietly, "Well, ouch."

"I said I was sorry!"

"That looked like it hurt," Lukas spoke up defensively, tightening his arm around Jesse's shoulders.

"I did say it had to look real!"

"Look real. Ever heard of acting?" Jace asked sardonically.

Soren opened his mouth to defend himself, but then the screen switched to Olivia, who let out a screech of horror as Jesse fell to the floor like a puppet with all of the strings cut. "JESSE!" she screamed, strange voice lost amidst the other voices that were screaming rage, and not fear like she was. She looked around desperately, hands shaking, before squeezing her eyes shut together violently, shoulders trembling violently.

And then she bleeped out of sight.

Her feet slammed full-force into the floor, and she tumbled onto the carpet, shrinking slightly, clothes going back to their normal color. Lukas, Petra, and Axel jumped, turning around from their various positions around the room to see Olivia scrambling back to her feet, eyes wide with fear and panic. "Olivia?" Axel asked, sounding bemused. "Where'd you-?"

Olivia caught her breath and practically screamed in fear, "JESSE GOT ATTACKED BY AN ENDERMAN!"

The sound of a door banging open sounded, and Olivia turned to see the door swinging crazily on its hinges and Lukas long gone.

"I ship it!" Stampy shouted randomly.

Jesse threw a pillow at him.

The screen went black. Then, a faint ringing came into effect, and it was as if a pair of doors were sliding open, one going up, the other down. The angle of the camera was sideways, and the two armor stands could be shown, the taller Enderman suit back on the taller armor stand. Obviously, they were seeing through Jesse's eyes.

A pair of legs walked through her vision, and Jesse closed her eyes again, probably in quite a bit of pain.

Jesse winced a bit, rubbing her head absentmindedly. She was NOT looking forward to that.

"I- I don't think it'll bruise."

Jesse's eyes opened again, to reveal Reuben's face only inches from her own. "Your face, I mean."

The screen switched to show Jesse blinking hard and shifting painfully, Reuben letting out a happy oink upon realizing that she was alright, the ringing in her ears fading as she slowly eased herself onto her elbow, looking a bit pale.

"These suits were built with durability in mind."

Looking in the direction of the voice, Jesse saw none other than SOREN, who was kneeling on the ground and looking at the girl with a raised eyebrow.

"Soren- ow," and Jesse clutched at her head as she sat up too quickly. Soren reached out and set a steadying hand on her shoulder, and Jesse remained clutching her head for a moment before slowly removing her hands from her head. "Help me. Please," Jesse said plaintively.

"I just did."

Jesse arched her eyebrow at the builder a bit as she slowly managed to push herself into a sort of kneeling position. "You... hit me. Hard. In the face."

"You upset the Endermen, and I got you to safety. By the way, as far as introductions are concerned..." Soren's gaze hardened. "This is not going very well."

"We're in danger," Jesse said, shakily getting to her feet but staggering sideways.

"I hope I didn't give you a concussion," Soren winced upon seeing how hard it was for the girl to actually stand up.

"You didn't." A short pause. "Probably."

"What else is new? Whatever your issue is, whatever the problem, it has occurred before and been solved before," Soren replied, sounding far from happy.

Jesse steadied herself by pressing her hand to the wall, stumbling a bit and wincing as she held her head with one hand. "I... doubt the world has been eaten by a Witherstorm before..." she grumbled, but quietly.

"Even so, what do you need me for? I've gone out of my way to avoid these types of problems. I don't even remember what it looks like up there," Soren continued, quietly.

"Please help me save the world," Jesse pleaded, looking very much as though she was trying supremely hard to resist the urge to sit back down.

Soren still didn't look at Jesse, back facing the spider hybrid. "How?"

"The Formidi-Bomb."

Silence.

"There's a Witherstorm on the loose, and it's eating the world."

"Ah, I see, you misspoke," and Soren finally turned to face Jesse, his face perfectly deadpan. "You don't need me. You need my stuff."

Jesse blinked onscreen. "Technically, I need you to build said stuff," she pointed out.

Soren perked up from where he'd started scowling. "Oh. True."

Onscreen Soren was already starting to talk again. "I found that when you give people what they want, they turn on you. They become resentful. They show their true colors."

Ivor and the Order all exchanged a quick glance, before looking back at the screen. Lukas was one of the only people to notice; the other one being Harper.

Jesse blinked at him again. "Who turned on you?"

"All of them!" Soren was glaring at the wall as if it had personally offended him. "It's why I prefer Endermen. They always do what you expect. Almost to a fault. You're a stranger. And what you're asking for is far too dangerous."

Jesse was silent for a moment. She took in a single, slow breath, before beginning to speak again, in an almost delicate manner; as if she were choosing her words extremely carefully.


A/N: I lost some creative freedom writing it in 'Cinematic Mode'... ah well, considering I'm going to publish this version (the slightly edited one) on Archive of Our Own (after the story's over), I can just change it to how I want it then xD

RQTC: How old do you all think I am? I'm actually curious, lol xD

AquaK13: (grins)

Emily The Avenger: (pumps fists)

x.X. A.L. X.x