The screen faded back in on the group staring around the room. Gabriel in particular was pretty much gawking at his surroundings. "So many books..." he murmured after a moment. The screen zoomed out to show that the room was illuminated by sporadically placed lamps and beautifully glowing blue ores. Potion bottles, empty and full, littered the tops of the shelves that housed hundreds, if not thousands, of books.

Jesse looked around at the group. "Let's just... fan out, and search for the enchanting book," she spoke, all of them splitting up to search through the books practically before she'd finished the statement.

The black-haired girl started walking through the shelves, before slowing to a stop next to Lukas, who happened to be nearest to her. "Having any luck?" she asked.

Lukas shook his head and made a face that made Real-Jesse grin. Real-Lukas poked her. "Not really. ... been thinking about a lot of stuff, actually."

Jesse tilted her head with a frown, all six of her arms crossing. "What kind of stuff?"

Lukas gestured vaguely. "Us being hybrids. Gabriel. The Ocelots. People getting amnesia and Wither Sickness..." He paused, before quickly amending, "I mean, don't get me wrong. I'm glad I came with you. But I'm just... I'm just scared for everyone."

Jesse reached out and squeezed Lukas's shoulder. "Hey, you're a good friend, Lukas. The fact that you're always thinking about others... it says a lot about you," she said, giving him a sincere smile.

Real-Lukas gave Jesse a smile. She patted him on the knee with a smile and returned her attention to the screen.

Onscreen, Lukas gave the black-haired girl a small grin. "Well, I like my friends. I guess that's why we're friends in the first place."

"Either that," Jesse teased, "or you like the fact that they say nice things about you."

Maya 'coughed' a bit.

Lukas laughed at that as well. Jesse reached up and patted him on the head, making the ocelot hybrid shut his eyes and let his ears twitch as he purred for a second, before opening them back up and looking at the shelves from where he was still letting Jesse pat his head. "Ivor, though... I think some of his only friends were books."

"There's nothing wrong with books," Ivor muttered.

"I guess being alone for ten years gives you a lot of time to read," Jesse agreed with a soft shrug.

Lukas shook his head. "Tell me about it. 'How to Train Your Slime'," he began reading off the book titles, "'The Various Uses of Mooshroom Stew', 'Potionology...'" He paused, eyes widening. "'Volume Twenty-Four'?!"

Real Jesse snapped her fingers, making the audience look at her. "Ohhh, so that's how he knows so much about potions."

Ivor shrugged when everyone glanced at him.

"Well," Onscreen-Jesse frowned thoughtfully, "none of them look like the enchanting book."

Lukas nodded at this and turned back to the books as Jesse wandered away again. She glanced at the shelf next to her as she walked along. "Hmm. 'A Brief History of Cubism'... 'Crafting for Noobs, Revised'... 'A Collector's Guide to Precious Gems'..." Jesse looked over at Olivia, who she'd ended up standing next to. "Any luck, Liv?"

"Would Ivor stick the most powerful enchanting book in the world near 'Crafting For Noobs'?" Dan asked curiously.

"Maybe, to throw people off the trail or somethin'. I know I wouldn't have the patience to read all of those book titles," Slab said, giving a shrug.

Clutch, Facemeat, Hadrian, and Mevia twisted to look at him. Slab blinked back, confused about this attention that he was now getting. "What?"

"Uhh... Nothing," Facemeat said, looking at the ceiling.

"Just... didn't know you could read," Mevia hummed mildly, turning away.

Several members of the audience 'coughed' at that. Jesse turned back to the screen to hide the silly grin that was starting to twitch over her lips, and therefore missed the scowl Slab sent in Mevia's direction.

Petra cleared her throat, getting back to Dan's question. "Er... well, that's the only room we're seeing. So unless there's a secret door in there or something, it's gotta be there."

Olivia shook her head as well. "Not really." She placed her hands on her hips. "Ivor has too many books. And there're too few of us looking. How did we all get split up like this? I feel like we're spreading ourselves too thin. That first night, that we all spent together? That was... fun. Almost."

A thoughtful look came over Jesse's face. "Hmm. It was kinda fun. We should do it again." She paused, before amending, "well, not that we've actually done it yet, but you get my point."

"If you get rid of the stress, and the fact that Axel and Lukas kinda started fighting..." Sparklez shrugged after a couple seconds. "Yeah, I guess that would be pretty cool."

"Let's discuss this after we finish watching the episode," Stacy said almost dismissively, "we can hammer out the details then."

Gabriel nodded. "Yes, I'm sure that'll be more convenient than scrambling around and trying to think of all of this while trying to watch the episode," he said helpfully.

"Well, at least Lukas is still here," Jesse sighed a bit, glancing over at the blonde ocelot hybrid. He was still perusing the bookshelves. "For a minute back at the cave, I thought he was going to leave, too."

"Glad you talked him out of it," Olivia agreed. "He's smart. I like having him around."

"Oh." Lukas smiled at Olivia from where he was sitting with his arms around Jesse's shoulders. "Uh, thanks, Olivia."

"And," Jesse leaned in a bit, dropping her voice conspiratorially, "he has excellent hair."

Both girls chuckled a bit as they glanced over at Lukas again. He was totally oblivious to the fact that they were watching him. Or, well, seemingly so... it was impossible to tell if Lukas was paying attention to this or not.

Lukas blinked, before looking at Jesse, his face turning faintly pink. "Uhh... thanks," he repeated, although a faint, silly grin was spreading over his face.

Aiden shared an amused glance with Cassie.

Jesse twisted to look at Lukas, making a big show of staring at his hair. "... yeah, good point," she said at last, reaching up and ruffling his blonde hair before turning back to the episode, trying to hide her now rather pink cheeks and valiantly ignoring the silent giggle fits that many members of the audience were now having.

Jace and Petra also made a big show of looking at Lukas's hair. "Well, she's not wrong," Petra said at last, moving her hand so that one hand rested on her hip.

Jace pouted a bit at Petra and poked her before turning back to the screen with a mock-angry huff. Lukas's lips twitched as he glanced at the mocha-haired boy sitting next to Petra; the ridiculous pouty face he had on, his short stature, and the exaggerated angry stance he currently was using all combined to make Jace look like a young child having a tantrum.

"He- pff," and Olivia recovered from the small giggling fit she'd been sent into, "he does have good hair, doesn't he?"

Jesse nodded sagely. "See? This is before moving on through the books, lips twitching as if she were repressing a grin. "Um, 'How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Mining'... 'The Unabridged Redstone Encyclopedia'..."

Ellegaard blinked and looked over at Ivor. "You still have that? I thought you said you didn't like using redstone."

Ivor stared at the screen silently for a moment. A sly smile slowly crept over his mouth. "You'd be surprised how often I used that book over the last several years, actually."

"'Zombies and Pigs, an Intimate Memoir'... hm. None of these have much to do enchanting." Jesse looked up to see Soren, who was staring at the shelves with crossed arms and a scowl. "Any luck yet?"

Soren scoffed. "In THIS mess?! It's as though Ivor learned nothing from my lectures on methodological organization!"

"Methodo-what?" Axel asked, brow wrinkling in confusion.

Ivor developed an acute interest in the episode, effectively ignoring the look he knew Soren was now sending him. Probably his left eyebrow went up by a half-inch and the right one went down by the same amount. He snuck a glance at Soren to confirm that the look was on his face, before developing his acute interest in the episode again.

"If only he hadn't gotten lost in that confounded swamp. Coming here was his idea!" Soren finished onscreen with an angry huff.

Jesse frowned up at the wall of books. "Well, there has to be SOME way to find the book."

"There's neither rhyme nor reason to how these books are stored!" Soren complained, "finding anything in here is impossible!"

Jesse shrugged, all six of her arms reaching out and grabbing books off the shelves. Giving them a quick glance, she replaced them in the place she'd found them before glancing up at Soren. "Tedious, perhaps. Impossible? Absolutely not."

The ginger architect sent Jesse a long look, before letting out an annoyed sigh. "Fine. I will continue this monotonous search. But I reserve the right to grumble about it."

Jesse shook her head and patted him on the shoulder. "Believe me, I want to grumble about it too," she agreed emphatically, making Soren crack a reluctant grin.

She let her hand slide off his shoulder and kept walking through the laboratory, before coming to an area with a fireplace. She arched her eyebrow and put her lower sets of arms on her hips. "Reuben, what are you doing?" she asked.

The screen switched to show Reuben sitting extremely close to the fireplace. He gave the black-haired girl a squeal.

Jesse reached out and came over to him, leaning over and fondling his ears. "Well you're gonna be cooked," she told him, but it was obvious from the warm look on her face that she really wasn't that mad about it. Carefully, while he was still butting his head into her hand, her lower arms scooped up the pig and shifted him a few more feet away. "I've told you. Stay. Away. From fire." She paused before adding, "and-or-lava."

Hadrian let out a loud snort. Real-Reuben gave the white-haired man an angry snort, making Hadrian look at the small pig appraisingly. It was almost as though Reuben had just understood what his snort meant.

Reuben let out a soft oink onscreen and butted his head into her legs. Jesse looked around the room, before pausing and approaching the side of the fireplace. On the side was a hole, with a trail of redstone leading somewhere inside.

"Yep. There's a secret door," Isa said immediately.

Milo's eyes widened a bit. "Fascinating," he breathed.

"Alright... I'm sure I can find something to power this circuit up," Jesse said resolutely, setting her hands on her hips, as she looked around. Spotting a piece of cobblestone, she snagged it. "Or maybe I can craft a lever or something. Worth a shot."

Continuing to move through the crowded laboratory, she paused when she saw Gabriel carefully examining a wall of potions. He looked over at her when she came up to him. "This Ivor character... I recall that he knew something about potions. Could one of these stop the Wither monsters?"

Jesse's lips twisted, and she crossed her arms. "No. There was only one potion that really had ANY chance of powering down the Command Block. And..." she looked back at him as her lower arms started to sort through the books, eyes flickering back to the shelves as she began multitasking, "we lost that about two weeks ago."

Gabriel hesitated, turning to stare back at the potions. "I recall that... Ivor was better with potions than people. And he... he..." For a moment, he seemed to recall something else, before he let out an irritated huff. "That's all. Besides the whole Ivor-being-a-jerk thing."

Magnus snorted. Ivor pointedly ignored this.

Jesse coughed and turned to look at Gabriel onscreen. "He's not THAT bad. When you really got to know him he was..." She paused, a thoughtful look coming into her eyes. "Well, he had a nice sarcastic sense of humor. He was kind... sort of. In his own way. And I think he thought of the friends he did have as... family. Like you," and her voice trailed off thoughtfully.

Gabriel simply frowned and turned back to the shelves. "Potion of blindness... potion of dullness... Potion of nausea... none of these will help me." He paused, before asking, softly, "Jesse, am I going to be all right?"

The faintly amused mood immediately sobered up. Gabriel's faint smile faded as he lowered his head to stare at his hands.

"Or... is this just who I am now? Always struggling to remember what I was... what I'm supposed to be..."

Jesse clapped him on the back, making Gabriel jump a bit in surprise. "You're gonna be just fine!" she exclaimed. "You're Gabriel the Warrior!"

Gabriel gave the girl a small smile. "Thank you, Jesse. Your confidence in me is stronger than any potion." He paused. "Except perhaps a potion of confidence... I wonder if Ivor has one of those," and he turned back to the shelf musingly.

The mood immediately perked back up, Stampy poorly disguising his laugh as a cough.

Onscreen, Jesse let out an amused laugh and retreated, looking around the room some more. Her smile faded after a moment as she stared at some books blankly for a moment. "... I do mean it, though," she said to the books at last, keeping her voice low. "I'll do anything to make sure these guys are okay." She snuck a glance at the rest of the group, before moving away through the shelves again.

"Even if I have to die to do it."

Everyone's head jerked around to stare at Real-Jesse, who had developed an incredibly acute interest in the episode. After a minute of silence, Lukas tightened his arm around the black-haired girl, but didn't say anything as the rest of the audience slowly went back to watching the screen.

For some reason, that last part had seemed ominously like foreshadowing.


A/N: Sort of is, but... sort of... isn't? ... eh.

RQTC: Who wants to hear some exciting news (not the news below)?

Anyway, hello everyone! Sorry about not updating for, like, a week... some of the people I PM know that that's because I was attending a funeral for the past week, so I was scrambling around trying to catch up on missed homework over the weekend. Updates will still be slower but that's just because it's slower!

By the way when HCM is over, I'll also begin to work on stories on Quotev, Wattpad, and Deviantart (all of them are on my Quotev journal, you can read the descriptions there if I don't transfer them over here). If you have a Quotev account, please head over and vote on it! And if you don't, er... PM me the vote or shoot me an email at 'arizaluca127 (a) gmail . com' (the (a) thing is an 'at' symbol). :3 The top four wins will be posted on all of the sites that I write on!

And oh, crap, I forgot I need to write a (late) birthday oneshot for TheRealRedGaming... SHITE I'LL GET TO IT LATER

Emily The Avenger: (laughs) True. / Glad to hear it! / FRIENDSHIP!

AquaK13: (laughs) Yep. / Hahaha xD Yeah now I can see that too. Thanks a lot for that mental image, now I'll be grinning like an idiot all throughout Chemistry xD

SofiaTheWriter88: (grins)

Beli0304: Haha, yep xD

the indecisive bird: By day I mean the moment the sun rises to the moment it begins to set. From night I mean after it begins to set (I know, I know, that's dusk, but I'm overgeneralizing here) until the moment the sun begins to rise. xD

LunarStarsMoons: (laughs) / (wink wink)

S4SH4L4SH4theGaMeR101: (grins) / Haha thanks dude

RebekahTPE: Yeah :/ / (laughs) Awww poor Jaune xD / Hahaha maybe I will x3 / A bunch of MCSM fanfictions and a couple of Harry Potter ones.

Rabbits rule: (laughs) So do I, don't worry. / Thanks! / Yeah :/

LittleAngelbun: (wiggles eyebrows) Mayyyyybe.

DynamiteHunter6: Yaayyyy! / Oh. Errr xD

Darkbeast Dend: (shrugs) Hey, it's your decision bro. Wait for another two or three years and then see if you still want to. / No, not dead. Been attending a funeral :/

MissyMattingly: If it's written by Spacelady2012 (or something like that), it's fine they already got my permission :3

NinaNaranja: (laughs) Don't worry, Ferris Wheels worry me. Something about the way the carts swing... / Thank you!

Ishani6's friend: 1. Lukesse, 2. Harvor, 3. Magnugaard, 4. Aidesse (don't judge) 5. Misa(?)

DynamiteHunter6: Done! :3

J.M.M.: (laughs) Haha, no worries.

x.X. A.L. X.x.