So, uh... homework and schoolwork's gonna start kicking my butt for the next month. It should calm down around April, but until then updates will be very slow. Sorry! xD
Petra was coughing uncontrollably onscreen between speaking. "We've gotta do-" Cough. "Everything we can-" Another cough. "To make this right."
Ivor shifted uncomfortably, but didn't actually say anything.
Olivia hesitated, before slowly crossing her arms and kneeling down so she was on more of an eye-level with the redhead. "Petra, I know this might be hard to hear, but... you're too sick to do anything."
"I'm not that sick," Petra argued.
A hand moved to rest on her shoulder, and Petra blinked and turned to see Gabriel pulling his hand away, staring at it and looking bemused that a thin layer of frost was coating it. He stared at it for another minute before looking back up. "I'm... not sure I know you. I feel like I do, and I should. But... well, I don't. I might not remember anything, but I do know that you can't keep going. These people... they care about you." He hesitated, a question in his eyes. "I think I care about you."
Real-Ellegaard cooed teasingly at that. Gabriel leaned over Soren to gently smack her on the back of the head, but he was smiling.
Onscreen, Petra stared at Gabriel with wide eyes as he finished, "And if you keep going like this, we might lose someone we all care about."
The redhead stared at him, before huffing and shaking her head. "No. I'm not a quitter!"
"We're not saying you are," Axel replied, putting his hands up in surrender.
"I want to be there for you!"
"Yeah, I'm not leaving you guys to fight that thing by yourself!" Petra exclaimed.
"Petra, you're getting weaker by the minute," Maya spoke up, gesturing at the screen uncomfortably. "You'll probably slow them down if you come with them."
"I can handle myself!" Petra exclaimed, shooting a withering glare in Maya's direction.
"Can you handle yourself while you're practically freezing to death and dying of Wither Sickness?" Em almost drawled sarcastically. "Face it, Peets-"
"Don't call me that-"
"You're not going to be much use to your friends if you're dead."
"Well I'm not going to just leave them to it!" Petra exclaimed, turning her withering glare onto Em. Em remained quietly unwithered, and Petra refused to back down from glaring at Em.
Jace looked at her, then at Jesse, before he played his trump card. "You know Petra, there's another reason you can't go with them," he said calmly.
Petra twisted to look over her shoulder at him. "And what would that be?" she asked, deceptively calmly.
Jace maintained eye contact with her for a few moments, before speaking, "Because if you die, I will never forgive myself."
Petra blinked, looking confused. "Why?"
Jesse took the opportunity and started running with it. "If you come with us, Petra, and you die, I'm never going to forgive myself for not making you stay behind and rest yourself," she spoke, evenly. "And since Jace and I are pretty much the same person, the guilt stretches to cover both of us."
"So you see Petra, Jesse and I can't let you come with us," Jace finished.
Petra stared at him, before, to several people in the room's surprise, she turned back to the screen, leaning back into his shoulder. "No, I guess you can't," she sighed, leaning her head against his shoulder.
Jace felt his face grow rather hot as he turned to stare resolutely at the screen, ignoring the giggles of the group.
"Petra, if you keep pushing yourself, you're not going to be able to be there for us," Jesse responded earnestly onscreen, crouching down to meet Petra's eyes.
Petra looked at Jesse for a moment, before slumping back against the wall a bit with a tired sigh. "Maybe you're right..."
"Well of course I'm right, I'm a genius," Jesse teased playfully. This prompted a round of laughter from the audience.
"Besides, you should probably stay back with Ellegaard," Soren suggested. "You can check on her injuries and... stuff, and she can make sure you stay... well, relatively warm."
Petra stared at Soren for several long moments- long enough to make him begin to fidget uncomfortably- before looking at Jesse, as if expecting her to tell Soren off or something.
"You do realize she's not going to let you come, right?" Isa asked, tentatively.
Wisely, Petra decided not to say anything in reply.
"You need the most rest out of all of us. And... if you're not going to get it if you come with us," Jesse finally told Petra, gently.
Petra lowered her head with a sigh. "If you say so..." Short pause, before she looked back up. "But you'd better kick the Witherstorm in the face for me."
Jesse chuckled at that, covering her mouth with one hand. She wasn't the only one- many people in the cave, and in fact the room, had started tittering at that. Even Aiden was hiding a grin carefully.
Gabriel tapped Jesse on the shoulder a moment later, making the black-haired girl look back at him. When he had her attention, he pointed at Magnus. "Er, Jesse... tell me, who is this person? He keeps insulting me."
Now it was Real-Ellegaard's turn to burst out laughing, making Magnus blush a bit and huff as he glanced away. Gabriel rolled his eyes, while Soren just shook his head with an amused look.
Onscreen, Magnus laughed and sheepishly rubbed the back of his head while Ellegaard rolled her eyes with a grin.
"One moment, I feel as if I'm talking to a friend... the next, I'm being made fun of."
"Yes. That's Magnus for you," Ivor sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose to hide the fact that a broad grin was making its way across his face.
Onscreen, Ivor rolled his eyes. "That's Magnus for you," he said, unknowingly echoing himself from a moment before.
"Hey, I just said that."
Harper 'coughed' a bit, hiding an amused grin very carefully.
Onscreen-Soren let out a sigh and put his hands over his eyes, his lips twitching as if he was deliberately hiding a smile. "You're telling me."
"This is Magnus!" Jesse said, flailing all of her arms at the Rogue. "He's the King of Boom Town."
"Didn't you defeat him and become Queen of Boom Town?" Ellegaard pointed out, arching her eyebrow at Jesse.
Jesse dismissed that fact with a wave of her hand. "I was Queen for, like, twenty seconds."A moment's pause, before she quickly waved her hand again. "B-b, that's not my point! He's your friend. He's been your friend for a very long time."
"Really?" Gabriel blinked at Jesse.
"Really."
Magnus sighed and shook his head. "It's not working."
"Tell him something about your past," Jesse suggested. "Something only you or the others would know."
"What about the time you set his bed on fire?" Ivor suddenly suggested.
"He what?" several audience members exclaimed.
Ellegaard raised her eyebrow at Ivor. "Which one?"
"I didn't set fire to his bed that many times!"
Soren crossed his arms, an amused grin crossing his face. "You did have a penchant for setting his bed on fire though. He went through, what, twenty? Twenty-seven?"
"I went through twenty-eight, but one of them was my fault. I put a bed down in the Nether," Gabriel said thoughtfully, before shooting Magnus a playful glare. "But the remaining twenty-seven were his fault."
Magnus huffed but said nothing.
"I only set fire to seven!"
Olivia rubbed her temples, a broad grin coming over her face. "Yeah, that makes it so much better," she joked.
"Ah, yes, I remember now," Ivor put his finger into the air with such a straight face that the audience was positive he was hiding a grin, "He set fire to seven, blew seventeen to smithereens, and the remaining three he threw off a cliff."
"I said I was sorry! It was an accident!"
"Which would this be? Setting fire to the bed, blowing it up, or throwing the beds off the cliff?" Soren chimed in teasingly.
"I hate you all," Magnus grouched, his cheeks flushing bright red in embarrassment.
"Lies, you love us," Ellegaard teased back.
Many members of the audience were now in stitches from this little byplay.
Gabriel stared at them thoughtfully, looking puzzled, before shaking his head. "I'm sorry... I don't remember."
Petra smiled at him before giving him an encouraging slap on the back, seeming to regret it a moment later when Gabriel yelped and shivered. "It's okay. You'll get your memory back sooner or later. We were all pretty close."
Jesse nodded agreeably, before turning back around and going over to Lukas, who was still rummaging through a chest. He paused in his task and looked up upon hearing Jesse's approach. "Lukas, what are you doing?"
The blonde stood up. "I told you, I'm going after my friends. I thought the other Ocelots were dead, but... if they're not, I have to go find them."
"I appreciate the sentiment, Lukas," Maya said softly, "really, I do. But you should stick with Jesse. You have no idea what could happen."
Aiden kept staring at the screen silently, not saying anything.
"Lukas, you can't just- just up and leave," Jesse protested, "you're a part of our team now!"
The real blonde yelped as Axel reached over and gave him a noogie. "You sure are, Lukas."
"Please don't noogie the blonde!"
This made Petra snort with a grin.
"Thanks, Jesse... but you saying that just reminds me that I left my team." Lukas stepped closer to Jesse, his tail twitching anxiously. "Look, Jesse, you and me... we've made a really good team so far. We were good friends before, and... I'd go so far as to call us friends now. So... I know you'd understand why I have to go help my old friends. Just like you'd go back for Axel, or Olivia, or Petra."
"We'll be fine," Aiden spoke up, making everyone look at him in surprise. When he said nothing else, they all looked back at the screen.
"Lukas, we were friends ten years ago. We are old friends. And I'm asking you, as a friend-" Jesse's voice caught, and she hesitated for a moment, before saying quietly, "please stay. We need you, Lukas."
Lukas paused, looking at Jesse uncertainly. The black-haired girl hesitated, before deciding to drive the point home. "With three of those things, we need all the help we can get. The best way to help your friends is to make sure the Witherstorm dies, and stays dead this time around."
Lukas hesitated a minute longer, before letting out a sigh, ears drooping. "Okay. I'll stay. I just... I hope they'll be alright."
"I promise I'll do everything to help you find them after this whole mess is over," Jesse said earnestly, almost automatically crossing her heart and covering her eye. Lukas nodded, a grateful smile spreading over his face.
"... thanks, Jesse."
The black-haired spider hybrid moved forward and wrapped her arms around him, burying her head in his shoulder in a tight hug. After a few seconds, he returned it. "No problem."
The screen faded to black, leaving a silence in the room.
"Seriously, you two ought to just kiss already."
Maya had to dive off of Gill's lap to avoid the two pillows that went sailing at the Ocelot member from both Lukas and Jesse.
A/N: So, uh... yeah. I'll be really busy this next month, so updates on this story are going to slow down significantly.
And, like I said, there will be more and more changes as time goes on, but most of them are pretty small.
So, uh... I have 15,000 views on this thing.
Guys, if we keep going at this rate, this story's going to have more views/reviews/EVERYTHING than Hybrid itself.
I'm not freaking out right now because I'm at school and that would be weird. xD
RQTC: Chaotic peace or harmonic entropy?
Harmonic entropy.
rebekahtpe: (laughs) / Huehue (evil grin) / Laptop. xD
Mel: Thanks, Mel! And sure thing!
Darkbeast Dend: Favorite dimension is the Nether. I have no idea why. xD / (pokes myself) Um, nope. Still have a heartbeat and am breathing. I am very much alive. xD
RapidSammi: (laughs) Glad to hear you like it. / I prefer Danny Phantom, it's funny xD
the indecisive bird: Nope xD Yeah, I'm trying to get over 200, 'cause I'M AN OVERACHIEVER! xD
Emily The Avenger: (grins)
NinaNaranja: (grins) Ivor's my favorite character, so he's gonna get some positive attention in this story.
Idon'tlikecheese: (high-five)
Kaos Ruin: (laughs)
DarkPrincess2001: I'm glad you like it! I'm actually planning to rewrite Hybrid with the changes implemented here, but that's still mostly just a thought. / You'll see how they find out when they find out xD
S4SH4L4SH4theGaMeR101: No worries, he's staying xD
LunarStarsMoons: Hehehe xD
AquaK13: Yeeessss xD (high-five)
DynamiteHunter6: Nahh it's cool xD
J.M.M.: Hey, good to see ya man xD As long as it suits you, you can come and go from this site anytime xD
FireBallin17: Haha cool xD
SofiaTheWriter88: (thumbs up)
Beli0304: Haha, yeah. Hence why Jesse's like "Hurry the heck up Ivor" xD
I'm a cat: Woof. xD
Rabbits rule: (laughs) Well, I'm glad you like the chapter.
x.X. A.L. X.x
