Jesse and Lukas sat like that for ages, his arms still wrapped around the girl, before they finally pulled apart.
"S-sorry about getting your shirt wet," Jesse said, using the long sleeve of her pajama top to mop at her face.
"Don't ever apologize about something like that," Lukas replied, raising his eyebrow at her a bit and faintly smiling at her to take the bite out of his words.
She returned it, sniffling once and wiping away some more tears, before blinking and looking down at her pajama sleeve. A blush began to spread over her face as she stared at it. "E-er... did you... uh..."
Lukas stared at Jesse for a moment, before his own face began to turn pink, pink pigment pumping through his cheeks rapidly. "Oh... n-no, P-Petra and Olivia changed you out of your clothes... I guess it's more comfortable sleeping in a set of pajamas than in some denim overalls. Haha," and he rubbed the back of his head awkwardly, trying valiantly to ignore the blush on his face.
Jesse relaxed, a faintly relieved look coming over her face. "Ah. I see."
There was another pause, before Lukas tentatively said, glancing at the door, "Well, we're going to have to watch the rest of the episode... I-if it makes you too uncomfortable, you can sit it out-?"
"No, I- I have to see what the aftermath is," Jesse said urgently, getting up out of bed (but being careful not to knock Reuben off the bed). "I'll be fine."
"You sure?" Lukas asked, reaching out and giving her shoulder a squeeze.
"Y-yeah," she replied, going over to where the girls had folded her clothes neatly as Reuben hopped down from the bed, trotting after her with an oink.
Lukas waited for a moment, before gently lifting his hand off her shoulder and giving her an encouraging smile. "Okay. Do you want to change, or-?"
"No, not really, these pajamas are really comfy," Jesse joked, making Lukas laugh a bit out of surprise and a bit out of relief. At least Jesse had recovered enough to be able to joke. "But at the same time, I'm not sure how comfortable I am letting them see my pajamas... so I guess I'll change out of 'em for now. You can go up ahead and let everyone know I'm doing better now." She paused. "By the time, do you know what time it is?"
Lukas checked his watch, eyes widening slightly. "Uh... wow, it's only about 7 or so. Depending on how long the episode is, we still have to eat dinner... and then depending if our plans have changed, I think we're going to be poking around this place in the morning." He couldn't believe that things could just go so... normally.
It felt like centuries ago that they'd made their plans.
"Oh yeah, nearly forgot about that," Jesse hummed, picking up her pile of clothes. "Well, you go hammer out the details with everyone else." She smiled at him again.
Lukas paused, staring at Jesse, before moving forward and putting his arms around her again.
The black-haired girl paused, a bit tensed up from where she was being held in his hug, before relaxing into it a bit. There were a few long moments where they stayed like that, before Jesse pulled away and gave Lukas a faint grin. "You go ahead, okay." She leaned down and fondled Reuben's ears, a faintly happier look coming over Jesse's face. "And you can stay with me if you'd like, buddy."
Reuben let out a cheerful oink, and Lukas grinned at that. "Alright. I'll head out, then. See ya in a minute!"
And he shut the door on his way out.
Lukas felt his face burn with embarrassment the moment the door shut. He started for the living room, trying to steady his breathing as he went.
He couldn't believe that he'd nearly kissed Jesse...
Had she been any taller, it would've been hard to avoid accidentally pulling her straight into a kiss, but thankfully she was quite petite, so he was able to divert his 'path' to her forehead.
Still. That could've gone wrong in so many more ways that it was a wonder that it hadn't.
He was standing in front of the living room doors before he'd realized he was even there. Taking a deep breath to calm himself, he pulled open the door.
Everyone looked up from their individual conversations to see the blonde making his way inside. Jace was sitting on the floor still, and Lukas was relieved to see that the mocha-haired male had recovered from the shock enough to be apparently holding a conversation with Olivia, Axel, and Petra.
Ivor turned to see Lukas, dark blue eyes burning with such intensity that the blonde had to check himself from shrinking away. "Did she tell you how she- you know?" the black-haired man asked, urgently.
"U-um, yeah," and Lukas recounted a very quick summary of the events. The audience's faces showed everything from horror to sorrow to sympathy to anger by the time he'd finished.
"She went through all..." Jace put a hand to his mouth, horror written over his expression. "Holy crap, no wonder she reacted as bad as she did..."
Ivor said nothing, just glanced away with a rather sorrowful expression on his face. "..."
Mevia gave her head a shake, a faintly sympathetic look fixed on her face. (Otto was staring at Mevia as if she'd sprouted a second head or something.) "That's... terrible," she said at last, albeit in a rather matter-of-fact voice that several members of the audience shot her a look at.
"Her dad did what?!" Petra seethed, eyes practically aflame with fury (Axel nervously edged away from the redhead a bit). "I swear, if I ever meet him, I'm going to shove my pickaxe up his-"
"Shove your pickaxe up whose- what?" Jesse asked, as she stepped through the door. Lukas jumped a bit in surprise. Quickly, everyone composed their faces into a more natural or casual look, hoping that she didn't notice the change.
Thankfully, she didn't seem to.
"Oh- Jesse- it's nothing," Petra spluttered, trying to cover for it. "H-how are you doing?"
Jesse leaned down and fondled Reuben's ears a bit, giving the audience a faint smile. "Not too good. Better now that I've told someone. Let's just get this over with," and she plopped down on the floor next to Jace.
There was a long pause, before everyone carefully changed their position so they were facing the screen again, a huge pause button blocking out most of the screen.
No one moved towards the thin gray rectangle that had the play button on it.
No one wanted to be the one to pick up the remote.
Finally, Hadrian made an irritated grunting sound and leaned forward, grabbing ahold of the remote and nearly slapping the button before tossing it back onto the coffee table, where it clattered noisily but didn't break (thankfully).
The screen loaded for a moment, before coming back to life.
Reuben disappeared in a puff of smoke, replaced by a single pork chop, hovering a little above the ground.
Everyone chanced a glance at the two. Jace's hands were fists on his knees, and Jesse's eyes were suspiciously liquid. However, neither of them started crying again.
Reuben nudged his way next to them and poked them, making both of them look down at the little pig and give him a little pat, both of them faintly smiling down at the pig.
Onscreen, Jesse slowly reached out and took ahold of the pork chop, staring down at it with more tears flowing down her face as she simply blinked, sending a cascade of the salty tears down her cheeks.
A hand gently placed itself on her shoulder. The girl probably usually would've started a bit out of surprise, but right now she just looked too miserable to do anything except just sit there. "Jesse," Lukas said quietly. "I am..." A pause. "I am so, so sorry."
Jesse's head dropped as she hugged the pork chop to her chest, a sniffle making its way out of her mouth as her shoulders started shaking, more and more tears going down her face. Lukas dropped to his knees in front of the girl, and put his arms around her in a tight hug as well. Olivia dropped to her knees and put her arms around the girl as well, and then Axel put his arms around the whole group, tightening his grip.
And for a few more moments, as the screen zoomed out to show people that must've been trapped in the Witherstorm slowly walking forward to watch them, and Ivor, and Magnus, and Gabriel and Soren, and then the three Ocelots, staring at the four hybrids in their intertwined hug.
Maya's hands tightened in her lap. "Notch," she muttered, staring at the screen with a dreadful expression on her face. "That must be horrible..."
Slowly, the screen went dark, coming back to show the words 'ONE WEEK LATER' emblazoned across the screen. It faded again to show a portrait of Reuben, the screen gradually zooming out to show that it was a monument with Reuben's name written under the portrait, and flowers and saplings surrounding the base of it.
Reuben whined, nuzzling into the two Jesses, as both thanks and seeking comfort. They gave it, Jesse's hands going to his ears and fondling them, and Jace's hands rubbing Reuben down gently.
Jesse took a deep breath onscreen, her hands stuffed into her pockets, seeming not to notice Ivor, Magnus, Gabriel, Soren, Ellegaard, Petra, Olivia, and Axel just behind her. After another moment passed, she turned around and gave Axel a sad sort of smile.
He returned it, reaching out and giving her shoulder a squeeze. Her eyes glazed over a bit, and the smile turned into a slightly forced one of pain.
Axel shot Real-Jesse a sheepish grin as she shot him a faint grin and a raised eyebrow.
Cheers erupted from a massive crowd behind them, and the four of them - Petra, Axel, Olivia, and Jesse- made their way through the crowd, Jesse and Olivia sharing a shrug and a shy smile, Petra squeezing Jesse's shoulder as they kept walking, Axel waving a bit, and Jesse shyly waving at a few people in the crowd as they walked towards a stage. The screen zoomed out slightly to show that there was a fire lit on top of Reuben's monument.
"Wait, where's Lukas?" Maya wondered, eyes narrowing.
Her question was answered a few seconds later as the screen switched to show Lukas standing in the crowd with the other Ocelots. Jesse hopped up a bit and waved at him, smiling. It was a bit of a sad smile, but at least she was smiling.
Lukas waved back, ears and tail flicking happily. The other Ocelots glanced at Lukas's tail, his ears, his blue-green eyes, before turning their gaze away.
Gill's grin faded a bit. "I... wonder what that was about."
"Why's Lukas not up there with us? He helped," Jesse wondered, scratching her chin thoughtfully.
Lukas shrugged noncommittally. "I'm sure it'll be explained later."
"Yeah, he probably just got stage fright," Petra joked, grinning at the blonde.
He punched her on the shoulder.
Jesse and the others climbed up onto the stage, the black-haired girl walking straight up to Gabriel.
Gabriel gave the spider hybrid a sad smile, before leaning forward and whispering to the girl, "People used to look at me like that once, Jesse. Having my memory restored has both been a blessing... and a curse. Perhaps they deserve to know the truth about the Order."
"About time," Ivor murmured. Soren shot a look in his direction.
"Yes, all those lies we've told them..." Soren was standing nearby with Magnus and Ellegaard. Ivor was standing at the back of the stage, away from the rest of the Order. "Perhaps we should come clean?" the architect finished, weakly.
Jesse gave the crowd the quickest glance, before nodding at the Order. "You're right. They do deserve to know," she replied, in a low voice.
The four Order members exchanged anxious glances, before they nodded in unison and walked to the edge of the stage together. Jesse stepped back a few steps, all of her hands twisting together anxiously as Gabriel hesitantly began speaking.
"We all owe a great debt to Jesse and her friends," Gabriel began.
Soren picked up the statement, "But we owe a debt to you people as well. Which is why..." His voice petered out, the two friends exchanging nervous glances. Ellegaard picked up, "Which is why we need to tell you something. About the Order."
The four of them all swivelled to look back at Ivor, whose arms were crossed. Slowly, his head dipped in a nod, a slight, encouraging smile coming over his face.
Magnus slowly took up the 'speech', "The Order of the Stone... isn't what you guys all thought it was."
"Wow, who knew you could be serious?" Ellegaard hummed, watching the screen.
Magnus put the redstone engineer in a playful headlock, making several of the occupants of the room roll their eyes and then turn away to hide their grins.
Gabriel looked at the floor, face darkening in shame. "We were... frauds. We used the Command Block to falsify our legacy."
Cries of shock and rage erupted throughout the crowd, as Soren finished quietly, "We were no heroes."
"So, guess that's that," Magnus sighed, letting go of Ellegaard and leaning back.
"Well, you did get rid of the Ender Dragon. Just not in the way you said," Jesse pointed out, giving another shrug. "I might be a bit disappointed in you guys for lying. But I don't hate you or anything."
The Order members all smiled at Jesse gratefully. She smiled back, although it was still a bit faint.
"So, it's time for the world to celebrate new heroes," Ellegaard picked up again, "real heroes."
There was a perfect, deafening silence. The butcher put his hands on his hips. Nohr, from Boom Town, sent them a sour look. No one cheered, or booed, or even shouted anything at them. It was just silent.
Jesse suddenly spoke up, making everyone's attention snap to her, "Well, they did do one thing to help us out." She gestured at her friends. "To help defeat the Witherstorm, which honestly, wouldn't have been possible if they hadn't done this one thing."
Sparklez hummed curiously. "What's that?"
Onscreen, the Order all exchanged confused glances. Soren shrugged, and Gabriel shook his head helplessly, as if to say that they had no idea, before turning to stare at Jesse patiently.
A smile twitched into place at the edge of Jesse's mouth. "They were the reason we managed to escape the lab."
"We have to know what happened to them!" A kid's voice burst out angrily onscreen, making several members of the audience jump (Mevia nearly ended up in Hadrian's lap).
The screen switched to show young Lukas pacing the floor, before stopping to cross his arms and glare at Axel. His tail was bushy, and his ears were flattened back. It was pretty clear, even to a casual observer, that Lukas was pissed. "We can't just sit in here and just wait for them!"
"I'm not saying we should do that!" Axel argued back, a hiss clearly audible in his voice as he glared at the ocelot hybrid. "But then what can we do? We can hardly just- I dunno- blow up the wall and run away!"
Young-Jesse interjected, spreading out her six arms. "Actually, we've never tried that. And with us being hybrids... well, it can't be that hard to run away. Besides! We can just use our abilities!"
There was a short silence, all of the hybrids looking at one another as if they were expecting a different idea.
"Well..." Petra spoke slowly, tilting her head to one side, gold eyes narrowing thoughtfully, "that's true. We've never actually tried running away."
Jesse nodded vigorously, making her short, fluffy black locks fly around. "And what if they need help or something? We can't just leave them behind!"
"It's a bit of a weak reason," Ellegaard mused. "I mean, at this point in time, there probably wasn't that much you can all do to help us out... but it's a reason."
"Jesse probably has a bit of an external reason- she probably wants to go track down Ivor," Soren noted, pointing at Jesse.
Olivia nodded herself, curls bouncing around. "Yeah, we have to go find them!"
Jesse looked around at the rest of the hybrids. "So we escape tonight. Everyone who agrees says 'aye'!"
There was a resounding 'aye' from the other hybrids, all of them putting their hands into the air and waving it.
The screen switched back to Jesse onstage, reaching out and putting a hand on Soren's shoulder. "Without their befriending us, and without the time they spent with us, we wouldn't have cared enough to want to leave- no offense," she added, shooting the Order a quick grin. They returned it sheepishly. "So for that, at least, I applaud them." She lifted one hand and shot a strand of string, the silk slamming into place around Ivor's wrist. The man blinked down at it, before she retracted it with a flick and literally dragged him across the stage to the front. "All of them," and she gave Ivor a grin.
Ivor huffed a bit as several members of the audience tittered a bit, being careful to hide the spreading smile on his face.
There was a grudging round of applause from the crowd at that, before the Order gave Jesse grateful smiles and walked off again, the cheers growing louder as Jesse nervously stepped forward. "Um, I know you think I'm up here because I saved the world. But- the truth is, I couldn't have done it alone. I had my friends with me," and she gestured at them. "My best friends," and she gave them a grin which all of them returned.
"Aww, ya big sap!" Petra joked, reaching over and giving Jesse a noogie. Jesse ducked out of the way with a giggle.
"Axel... Olivia... Petra..." Jesse saluted playfully to the ocelot hybrid standing in the crowd, who rolled his eyes and returned the salute, "Lukas... they all stood by my side, right from the start." She paused for a moment in thought. "And they made fun of me, when I deserved it," she laughed a bit, "but that's just how we are."
"Darn right we are!" Axel grinned and nodded.
"And it's... crazy, to think that my friends and I started out in a treehouse, not even knowing what we really were... and now look!" She spread all six arms out, a smile forming on her face, "we've been to some of the weirdest places in the world!"
"Yeah, we went to the Nether-" Petra began.
"Then Boom Town-" Axel picked up.
"- and Redstonia- not that it's weird-" Olivia quickly said, her cheeks flushing pink when Ellegaard just gave a warm laugh at the accidental insult.
"- The End-" Lukas noted.
"And the Far Lands," Jesse finished up the list.
"I mean," Jesse shook her head with a laugh, "we went to the Far Lands!" The crowd started cheering again. "There was this huge wall, and this crazy maze, and- well, you just... kinda had to be there," and she smiled at her friends again. Once again, they returned it.
"And, yeah, we're hybrids. But... in the end, it's the exact thing that saved our lives, over and over again, and the world," Jesse added, giving her extra arms a glance, before her smile faded a bit. Her lowest set of arms went to her hips, the middle set crossed over her midriff, and she hugged the elbows on her upper set. "In the end, though... what really mattered the most to me was Reuben. He was probably just a pig to... most of the people here," she nodded a bit at the crowd, "but... he was one of my best friends. He was so much more." She took a deep breath, before shaking her head and saying softly, but still audibly, "And in the end, he's the one who helped me save the world."
A clap.
Jesse and Jace looked around at Lukas, who was slowly starting to clap, a small smile on his lips. Petra joined in, then Axel, and Olivia, and then Maya and Gill, and soon the whole audience was applauding the little pig. Even Aiden was clapping a bit, shaking his head with a strange smile, and Hadrian and Mevia, and Em and Nell and- well, the whole room was echoing with applause. Jace paused in his applause to hold Reuben into the air, the little pig letting out a cheerful squeal at this.
Onscreen, Jesse raised a single hand in the air, letting all of her arms drop except for that one, and pumped it once with a small smile. "For Reuben!"
The crowd erupted in cheers, making Jesse wince with a small smile as she covered one ear. The rest of the Order came back on stage, Gabriel and Magnus exchanging a conspirational grin, before Magnus came forward and held out a shining, purple-gold star that gleamed dangerously. "Jesse," he spoke dramatically, "this is the Nether Star that dropped when the Witherstorm was destroyed."
Ellegaard gave her eyes a slight roll. "Nice narrator voice," she told him softly as Jesse carefully took the star.
Magnus grinned. "Thank you," he whispered back, dropping the dramatic voice, before raising his voice again, "You wanna do the honors?" And he gestured at a huge structure made of iron, gold, and obsidian just behind her.
"What is that?" Petra mused.
Stepping forward to the dark blue block in the center of the structure, she carefully set the Nether Star down. She quickly backed up as the star started spinning, faster and faster, before eight stained-glass blocks burst into glowing light, sending beams of red, green, white, turquoise, and dark blue soaring into the sky. Gasps of amazement came from the audience, Stampy leaning forward with sparkling eyes and Cassie giving her head an impressed shake.
"Whoa!" Gill grinned. "That looks awesome!"
"Can't wait to see that in real life," Axel grinned.
Gabriel pulled the amulet out, Jesse blinking at it before back up at Gabriel. "Did Soren and Ellegaard finish the thing they wanted to do with it?" she asked, quietly.
A smirk spread over the warrior's face. "My friends," he announced loudly, ignoring Jesse's question, "I am proud to introduce to you..."
"Is he going to do what I think he's going to do?" Dan asked, eyes widening. "He's gonna do what I think he's gonna do, right?"
"What do you think he's going to do?"
Gabriel placed the amulet into Jesse's hands, and immediately it lit up brighter than stars in the night sky in her hands, making Jesse step back a moment in shock as the amulet glowed brightly, "The new Hybrid Order of the Stone!"
The audience gasped.
"That's radical, dudes!" Nell exclaimed, whipping around to see the group sitting on the floor and blinking at the screen in total bemusement.
"We," Olivia spoke slowly, staring at the screen in shock, "get to be in the Order of the Stone?"
"Awesome!" Axel exclaimed, high-fiving everyone on the floor. Lukas patted Jesse on the back gently.
"Congrats, guys."
Petra frowned a bit. "I wonder why you weren't up there with us. You did help us out," she said, slowly.
Lukas shrugged. "Well, adventuring's not really my strong suit. Besides," and he shot Aiden, Gill and Maya a faint smile, "I'm already an Ocelot."
The three of them shot up straight in their seats, before they exchanged a quick glance- the first time they'd made eye contact in a while.
The crowd cheered onscreen again. Jesse's voice came onscreen again, even as she smiled at the crowd. "Tomorrow's a new day. And it might be a bit harder going through it without Reuben. But... I think I'll be ready for whatever it throws at me."
Jesse's lowest set of hands went into her pockets, her smile fading again as her eyes flickered down.
"... just as soon as I go do this."
The screen faded to black.
"Do what?" Maya mused, squinting at the screen a bit. "Jesse, what are you going to go do?"
Everyone looked at the black-haired girl.
Jesse just shrugged a bit, looking a bit bemused by the whole affair herself. "How am I supposed to know?"
A/N: Oh boy. The feels train pretty much went away this chapter, but you guys better be ready for it to come back next chapter.
Episode 5 is undergoing the most plot changes from the actual Hybrid story. Also, some dialogue changes. Just be forewarned.
Also, note to myself: grab that notebook with all of my story ideas and planning and stuff out of my Chinese school backpack...
RQTC: How badly do you all procrastinate?
Terribly. I don't know when my habit of procrastinating started, but it's really debilitating now.
S4SH4L4SH4theGaMeR101: (laughs) Glad to see you liked the chapter.
NinaNaranja: Ahh I'm sorry / (laughs) PARTY! And thanks, Nina!
Emily The Avenger: I'M SORRY (dives under the desk) (bangs my head) Ow
AquaK13: Thanks! :3 / (blushes) That was... a lot harder to write than I was expecting, to be honest. / (laughs) Yes, yes he did. / Thanks, dude! It's no problem, I don't need congratulations- I just need to know that you all enjoy my story.
Nefera: Thank you! I don't think I've ever met you- in which case, welcome to the HCM story! Thanks again!
J.M.M.: :3
LittleAngelbun: I'M SORRY I'M MAKING PEOPLE CRY
LunarStarsMoons: (laughs) / Yeah, all of the fluff xD
SofiaTheWriter88: It really was hard, it took me forever to write and figure out what to say xD / Thank you! I'm glad to hear you like it so much. / (blushes) Depending on how old you are, I might be your sempai/senpai then xD
Beli0304: (laughs) Yep. / Thanks!
homeworkoverload: (laughs) I update really, really fast unless something comes up in my life. / I've tried to stick it in, but I AIN'T GOOD AT IT xD / (whistles) Yeah, that'll be interesting.
the indecisive bird: Thanks! / Oh, I had the general backstory up. I just had no idea how to write it, I've never written anything as dark as child abuse. xD So I really didn't know what I was doing there xD
Meow Shadow: (laughs) I love sliced bread. / Yeah... / (laughs) I hope so too! And thanks! / (blinks) Ummm... I call snickerdoodles, I guess. xD
RapidSammi: (gives you a cookie) I'M SORRY SAMMI (dives under desk)
RebekahTPE: (laughs) I'm glad you liked it. / (laughs) / SORRY! (dives under desk) (bangs head) ouch. / I'd rather be a vampire. I have no idea why, though xD
Darkbeast Dend: (laughs) / Thanks!
CrystalTearsofFaith: (laughs) Well, I'm glad the Lukesse and Jetra cheered you up a bit... if it did... xD
Rabbits rule: (sheepishly sidles off) / He is just an old friend. No quotation marks around it. They were around 13 when he died, and had been friends since they were 7.
Kaos Ruin: Ahh, cool. (thumbs up)
x.X. A.L. X.x
