Jesse sat down next to Lukas, the group of hybrids sitting in a little circle.

"Oh my god," Lukas said at last, in a soft voice. "I just... we're." A hollow little chuckle. "We're hybrids."

There was a moment's pause, before, as if he just realized it for the first time, he said, voice rising in both volume and pitch, "Oh my Notch we're HYBRIDS!" He leaped to his feet, blue-green eyes darting everywhere in a panic. "We're not even human, holy crap!"

"You just realized that?" Aiden asked sarcastically.

"Wow," Jesse said quietly, shaking her head and staring at the wall, a blank look in her eyes.

"We haven't actually... had the time to think about it," Olivia said quietly, staring at the floor. "We never had time. There was always something that was more of an immediate shock or threat. But now that I'm actually taking the time to sit and think about it..." She shook her head as well. "I think I'm going insane."

Petra let out a hollow laugh, which quickly deteriorated into a soft cough. "How... how didn't we know... how didn't we realize... for ten years. TEN YEARS. That's a long time to not even realize that you're not even fully... human."

Jesse shook her head again. "Wow," she repeated.

Axel let out a laugh, but it was more of a nervous, querulous affair. "None of us- we're practically monsters- we ARE monsters- almost literally- why haven't-!" his breath hitched as he tried to inhale, "why haven't we all freaked out big-time by now!"

"Wow," Jesse repeated again. Her expression was still full of blank shock, and that one syllable seemed to be the only word she could say right then.

"I kinda get how they're feeling," Stampy mumbled, scratching his cheek. "I mean, they found out they're half googly, and they haven't actually freaked out about it until now... I think they're just realizing, in a way."

"I can't believe it..." Olivia said slowly, hugging herself a bit as she kept staring at the floor.

Lukas shook his head and plopped back down next to Jesse, leaning against the spider hybrid. "I- I can't, either. It just seems so... fantastical."

"It's absurd," Olivia agreed, reaching up and pinching the bridge of her nose as if she had a headache.

A short pause. Petra finally shook her head. "Okay. I don't know... I just feel like we've kinda already accepted the fact. We just..." She trailed off, before giving her head a slow shake, a hollow laugh making its way out of her throat. "We just never had the time to freak out about it before."

"Yeah," Axel panted out, still hyperventilating a bit. "Yeah."

Jesse finally looked from the wall to her friends, green-and-red eyes flicking carefully from each person. "I'm just... I'm glad we're all together. I'm glad we're all here," she said finally, a faint smile coming over her face.

Petra leaned forwards without a word, dragging Jace with her, and pulled Jesse into a hug. Lukas joined in a second later, and Axel and Olivia joined into the group hug. For a moment, the gang sat there entangled in their hug in perfect silence, before they all shifted backwards again.

Everyone quietly echoed agreement onscreen. Jesse looked at Petra, eyes growing much more concerned and the smile falling right off her face. "Are..." she paused, before amending whatever she was about to say and finishing slowly, "How are you doing?"

Petra looked at her feet, hunching down into herself. "If I don't move... or breathe... I feel like it's almost bearable." She hunched down a little more. "And that's ignoring the cold."

Olivia huffed and crossed her arms. "Man, if Ivor hadn't even created the stupid Wither, Petra wouldn't even be like this right now."

"That's not entirely true," and that drew several surprised sets of eyes to the redhead, who was starting to slide down the cave wall with a pained look. "If I didn't bring the Wither Skull to Ivor, he wouldn't have been able to create the Wither in the first place."

Jace was shaking his head at Petra almost before onscreen-Petra stopped talking. "You're wrong. The blame for this whole mess isn't on you. It's on Ivor. Think about it, if he hadn't even planned to create the Witherstorm, he wouldn't have even asked you."

Petra just pressed her lips together and didn't say anything.

Jesse looked down at her feet onscreen, her own lips pressing together into a thin line.

"Jesse, I know this is probably... a bad time..." The girl looked up and turned around to see Soren approaching, his voice rising. "But what happened out there?! Why is that thing still alive?!"

Both Real-Jesse and Onscreen-Jesse winced a bit at the rising volume and pitch of Soren's voice as he stalked towards her. "My instructions were simple! You were the one in the middle of everything, what went wrong?!" By the time he'd finished the sentence, his voice had risen into the point where he was practically screaming.

"It's not her fault, don't yell at her!" Lukas said defensively, tightening his arms comfortingly around Jesse's shoulders. The black-haired girl gave him a grateful look, since she'd started trembling like a leaf and looked as though she might start crying any second.

"Why is that thing still alive?!" Soren nearly screamed at Jesse, and Lukas was getting up defensively, ears twitching angrily, but then something happened.

Jesse snapped.

"I don't know, okay?!" she yelled at the top of her lungs, making Soren step back a step in alarm. "What I do know is that whole mess is my fault!" She grabbed at her hair, eyes wide and filled with tears and, altogether combined, making her look outright deranged.

"If I'd convinced Petra not to give the skull to Ivor, if I'd convinced Axel not to take that potion, if I'd been able to get Gabriel out, if I hadn't taken Ellegaard's armor, if I had just been better then Petra would be okay, Gabriel wouldn't have amnesia and Ellegaard wouldn't have gotten hurt and NONE OF THIS WOULD HAVE HAPPENED!" she screamed, so hard that her voice cracked, tears overflowing out of her eyes and down her cheeks as every bit of stress and pent-up emotion came pouring out of the spider hybrid with the force of a sledgehammer.

Jesse was staring at the screen with a blank expression, but her eyes were actually starting to overflow with tears, the tears flowing down her cheeks freely. Soren gave the girl a rather guilty look, biting his lip at the sight of both Jesses seeming to be crying.

"Oh... Jesse, no!" Olivia was moving towards Jesse onscreen, reaching out to the spider hybrid with an alarmed look, "No, it's not- don't- it's not your fault-!"

"Yes it is!" Jesse sobbed out, hands clamped over her ears defensively and stepping out of reach of Olivia's arms as the others slowly started moving towards her, worry obvious on their faces. "I'm not good enough! I'm never good enough! I'm a screwup, I've always been a screwup, I'll always be a screwup and I'll never be able to do anything right!"

Lukas wrapped his arms around Jesse in a tight hug, the black-haired girl simply continuing to stare at the screen vacantly.

Onscreen, Jesse suddenly whirled around, ignoring the alarmed cry and the hand that brushed against one of her lower ones as she bolted out of the cave and into the trees, tears still pouring down her cheeks as she fled, running and running and running and running-

Her foot hit a tree root, and she pitched forward with an alarmed cry before falling facefirst into the dirt, snow drifting out of the sky around her.

There was a full minute of silence, before Jesse slowly sat back up, drawing her knees up to her chest and letting out a series of hiccupping, tearful sobs. Any mental wall that she'd put up to repress her emotions had just shattered.

Soren shook his head. "I'm sorry, Jesse. I shouldn't have shouted at you," he apologized, rubbing the back of his head.

Jesse just continued staring at the screen, tears still pouring down her cheeks from her vacant eyes, before she said in a soft voice, "It's alright. I'm used to it."

Unbeknownst to her, several members of the audience exchanged puzzled looks at that.

Onscreen, Jesse's shoulders were shaking as she cried. After a few seconds, the sound of crunching snow could be heard. Jesse didn't uncurl herself. She didn't look up from the little ball she'd balled herself up into to see who it was, hugging her knees and rocking back and forth slightly.

A hand settled onto her back and began to pat her quietly, the owner of the hand not visible on the screen. Jesse slowly relaxed, her knees still drawn up to her chest as her head slowly raised to show red, slightly puffy eyes as she stared straight ahead.

"Who's petting Jesse?" Dan wondered, eyes narrowing questioningly. Stampy shrugged at the question, looking just as bewildered as Dan did.

Suddenly, a surprised sound came out of Jesse's throat, and she looked up suddenly, eyes widening. After a second, she sat up straighter and turned to look over her shoulder.

To most of the audience's surprise, kneeling in the thin layer of snow and dirt on the ground, and still quietly patting her on the back, was Ivor.


A/N: I feel like this is just as awkwardly written as it was the first time around, even with the changes to dialogue... aggggghhh... well, anyway, this is part of the reason I was so hyped to write this chapter xD Because Jesse breaks down. xD xD xD Lemme know if you have any suggestions to fix the chappie!

RQTC: Is this awkwardly written to you, or is it just me?

Emily The Avenger: Lol, yep xD

Kaos Ruin: I know, right? And no, but she is going to start crying. I think with Ivor and Aiden, their personalities at the time reminded her more of her actual father, so she was more fearful about the whole thing. Soren is as far from his personality as you can reasonably get, so she doesn't react the same way- she does flinch, though.

AquaK13: Hehe xD / Aww, thanks.

Darkbeast Dend: Cool. / Heehee

SofiaTheWriter88: Ooh, were they?

S4SH4L4SH4theGaMeR101: Thankssss :3

Rabbits rule: I could've been a lot ruder, Fluffy xD / Haiiii :3 / Like I said... no spoilers.

RapidSammi: N'aww thanks Sammi-kun.

x.X. A.L. X.x