The screen was still black, when suddenly Little-Cassie's voice came onscreen. "Aunt Cassie, do you think she'll play with me if I ask?"

The screen switched to show a ball spinning into the air rapidly. A web shot out from somewhere offscreen, and the screen zoomed after the ball as it slapped into Jesse's hand, the little spider hybrid sitting cross-legged on the ground as she detached the ball and rolled it back to Cassie.

Cassie giggled as she picked the ball back up. "You're good at this!" she called over to Little-Jesse.

Jesse smiled brightly back at her, squeezing her eyes shut. "Thanks," she replied, voice still sounding remarkably like a sort of humming hiss.

Jace mumbled something about them being too loud in his blankets and burrowed even further under them, making the two girls look at each other and then start giggling cheerfully.

"Lazy puppy," Petra whispered into Jace's ear, making him glance back at her.

"Nyeeeeehhhh." He stuck his tongue out at her and snuggled into her further, which was a bit amusing for Petra.

(Not that she was complaining, of course.)

Real-Cassie's gaze softened as she glanced at Jesse, who seemed to be staring at the screen intently, drinking the sight of that moment in with a blank expression on her face. If you stared closely though, you could see the hope dancing in her eyes.

Cassie finally went back to watching the little game that was in progress, feeling a fist clench a bit in her stomach.

That looked... nice.

Cassie bounced the ball again, before throwing it up as high as she could. The spider hybrid waited for a moment, as if waiting for the ball to go as high as it could, before raising her palm and letting a web shoot out of her hand and latch back onto the ball, retracting it once again so that it landed right in her palm. Pulling the strings off, she tossed it back at Cassie, who jumped to catch it, missed, and ended up having to go chase after it. "How are you so good at this?" Cassie called over to Jesse as she dashed after the ball.

The spider hybrid thought about it for a moment, her bottom lip poking out a little bit in thought. "Hmmmnnn... I'm not sure. The scientists test me a lot, I guess."

Cassie shrugged and winged the ball into the air again, Jesse catching it easily with a smile and tossing it back to the little redhead, who caught it this time. "Well, whatever it is, I don't mind- it makes playing catch with you a lot of fun!" she chirped.

Jesse beamed cheerfully. "Thaaaaaanks~!" she chirped, voice actually shaking off some of the hissy hum that it was and sounding normal... human, really.

Cassie beamed back, and suddenly the landscape was changing around her and her smile dropped to one of a slightly muted excitement.

"Oh- okay- that's a bit dizzying," and Lukas winced.

Jesse absentmindedly fingered the choker around her neck as she watched the screen. "Yeah, it... actually, it really is. Not nearly as bad as the little minecart ride in Sky City, though."

Isa winced a bit.

When the background changed, the camera shifted as Cassie started walking down a white hallway. She came to a stop next to a door, and hopped up to grab the handle. It took a few tries, but after a few minutes it slowly shifted open.

Jesse was snuggled up in her pile of blankets like the first time she and Cassie had met, but she sat up when she saw Cassie eke into the room. Cassie's smile faded as she surveyed the room.

"What's she looking for?" Axel wondered.

Olivia was shaking her head almost before he'd finished. "Not what, Axel- who. She's looking for Jace."

Jace's eyes widened, as did several other members of the audience's eyes, as they reevaluated the scene and realized that Olivia was right.

Jace was nowhere to be seen.

"Maybe... maybe he's in a test or something?" Mevia suggested, frowning nervously at the screen and beginning to fidget with her hands a little bit. (Otto and Harper exchanged openly shocked looks at that.)

Em's eyes narrowed. "Maybe."

But her tone of voice said she didn't believe that.

"Hi, Jesse," Cassie said to the spider hybrid, tentatively.

Jesse blinked at Cassie for a few seconds. Then she turned around to look over her shoulder, as if looking for someone behind her. Then she turned back around to face Cassie with a blank look. "Are you talking to me?"

"Yeah- of- of course I am," Cassie said, blinking rapidly. "There's only two people in the room, and- and I'm using your name, aren't I?"

"But I don't have a name," Jesse stated matter-of-factly, blinking a bit.

Harper put a hand to her mouth, eyes widening.

Jace wasn't in a test.

He'd already been taken.

Cassie just blinked at Jesse, looking crestfallen and confused now. "Jesse... what are you talking about?" she asked, taking a cautious step forward-

Jesse edged backwards a bit more, looking warily at Cassie. "Who are you?" she asked, finally, sounding a bit worried. "Why are you in here?"

Cassie's eyes widened, and she stood there for a moment, hands trembling, as if she really wasn't sure what to say. "... Jesse...?"

The door suddenly banged open, making Jesse flinch and Cassie turn around with a little jump.

Cassie's aunt was in the doorway, a furious look in her eyes as someone came up behind her. "C'mon, Rosie- we're leaving," the woman nearly snarled, before covering her mouth and coughing a little bit.

Cassie turned back to Jesse, who was just staring at them blankly. She lifted her hand and gave a forlorn little wave. "See you," she told the spider hybrid, at last.

Jesse simply nodded after a minute, an odd look on her face. "See you," she echoed.

"Cass, please-" the audience's eyes widened at the voice, "I didn't know either-"

"I'm sorry, Harper," the red-haired woman nearly seethed, taking Cassie's hand and walking out of the room briskly, walking straight past the other woman, "but I'm not staying with that-" Her hands went over Cassie's ears for some reason, "- and I'm not staying here one minute longer." Another harsh cough came out of her mouth, and Cassie's aunt reached up to cover her mouth. "... good bye."

And she continued storming out, Cassie looking back at the fluffy-haired, confused-looking spider hybrid behind her...

Before the door slammed shut on Jesse with a final-sounding sort of clang.

The screen switched back to show Cassie, and suddenly her background started reconstructing herself, her aunt vanishing as she abruptly curled in on herself, squeezing her eyes shut as tears started pouring down her cheeks. The background finally stopped reconstructing, showing a slightly older, maybe pre-teen Cassie curled up in the corner of a bed near a window.

A window that revealed a spooky forest with two moons.

The YouTubers all exchanged a wide-eyed, silent look at that.

"... you promised, Aunt Cass." Cassie mopped at her eyes, a tiny meow sounding as a kitten Winslow poked his head over her knees. "You hid the flint and steel somewhere, I didn't follow you... we were together, and everything was okay... you promised you'd stay with me. No one else did so why-" she choked a bit, letting out a sob as tears began dripping onto a set of glasses in her lap. "... why did you leave me alone?"

Cassie blinked hard, feeling tears start pooling in her own eyes. She tried to blink them out of her eyes but only succeeded in making them run down her face in rivulets.

Aiden glanced at Cassie before doing a double-take at the sight of the red-haired girl furiously blinking her eyes, tears pouring down her cheeks with each blink. He watched her for a moment, before letting out a nearly inaudible sigh and pulling her over into a tight hug, Winslow quickly slinking down into Aiden's lap to avoid getting squashed.

Cassie stayed there for a moment, stiffly, before slowly melting into the hug, her face crumpling a bit as tears continued overflowing from her eyes.

Jace felt Reuben slipping out from between them, and he looked down to see the little pink pig running over to Cassie, nudging the girl's leg insistently.

Cassie looked down to see Reuben nuzzling her leg a little bit, letting out little comforting oinks.

She just couldn't help but let a watery smile come over her face at that, tears continuing to flow down her cheeks.

Onscreen, Cassie sniffled again, wiping her eyes. "I..." She paused for a moment, "I wanna go home."

This just sounded so heartbreakingly like a forlorn little child that Jesse turned away and buried her face into Lukas's shoulder. He slowly pulled her into a hug, burying his own face into hers as he felt her shoulders tremble slightly.

"I wanna go find my friend. I- I can't remember them, but- but I liked them, and- and I remember that. I remember that I really, really liked them... I want to go find my friend..." Cassie hunched over even more, letting out a choked sound. "But I can't. I'm just... stuck here."

Winslow meowed plaintively onscreen.

"... all I've got of any of them are just memories and nightmares and dreams now."

The screen's background abruptly started changing again, turning into a slightly more stone-lined room than the warm wood that the one she'd just been in was. Cassie started aging a bit again, but not as drastic of a change- she was only a little taller and a little older looking.

Onscreen, the girl abruptly swung her arm out, right as the background stopped changing.

Her axe slammed into an armor stand with a loud CRUNCH!

Half of the audience jumped a bit at the sudden, loud noise.

Cassie slammed her foot into the armor stand, slamming it off of the axe and knocking it to the floor. She didn't stop at that, though- she raised her axe again and brought it down with such a horrible series of crunching noises that everyone couldn't help but flinch at every noise, every hit, as she slowly reduced the armor stand to splinters. Judging by the amount of shattered wood already all over the floor, she'd been doing this for quite a while.

Abruptly, she came to a stop, her shoulders trembling and sweat pouring down her face. Her eyes were glowing red slightly, and she finally shook it off a little bit, eyes slowly returning to green. "... damn, that genetic condition hasn't gotten this intense for a while." She sighed, leaning against the wall a little bit. "I still can't believe Aunt Cass didn't mention it to me. I mean... it affects me, too. I should at least have known about it."

There was a long pause, before she looked up. Her eyes followed a trail of wooden splinters... before coming to a stop on a white pumpkin.

Everyone's eyes widened.

"Oh, crud..." she went over and dusted some splinters off. "Did I really lose that much control that I got splinters all over here, too?" she let out a slightly annoyed sigh. "No wonder Aunt Cass always told me not to-"

Her eyes abruptly widened, and the screen switched to show the axe clanging off the wall, spinning out of her hand, and landing on the ground. Cassie shook her hand out a bit, glaring at the axe with slightly reddening eyes again.

And then the 'pause' signal came onscreen.

Aiden looked around at Harper oddly. "Did you just pause the episode?"

"No, I- the remote's been right here the whole time, I haven't touched it since it started," Harper replied, sounding rather startled herself.

"Now, something you should probably know about Cassie- she avoids thinking about her aunt as much as humanly possible."

Everyone's heads snapped to face the screen again.

"The narrator," Magnus mouthed.

"She's usually doing everything she can to just not think about it- beating up armor stands, setting up redstone traps for fun, brewing- um, no offense, Cassie, but you're not too hot at that-"

Real-Cassie scowled a bit.

"- and she pretty much just flat-out refuses to ask for help. It's... almost like a personal insult to her to admit that she just needs help. Even if she's building a trap and continually dropping stuff on her foot or whatever." The narrator paused, allowing the audience to absorb that a bit, before continuing, "Welp, I think we're about done right now. Let's keep going, shall we?"

The screen went back to playing, Cassie's fist slowly curling a bit as she slid down the wall and landed on her hands and knees, eyes shutting as if she was tired, so, so tired, and she was just sick of everything.

Real-Cassie knew that expression.

She'd been making it for the past 7 years.

Abruptly, the background changed again, to that cavern with the portal in it, Cassie bending down and starting to pet Winslow. "The portal key was found," she told him, a strange spark dancing in her eyes.

Winslow looked up at his owner, making an odd grumbling sound that sounded a bit more concerned than anything else.

"I have to get the portal key," Cassie continued slowly, lifting her head so that now she was staring emotionlessly at the portal on the wall, and it was kind of terrifying, in a way, to see a previously animated, cheerful girl just look so...

Blank.

Real-Cassie could remember building the portal with her aunt as well. It'd been hidden deep underground, so only she or her aunt could come through, because they'd built it together, just in case they ever needed to go back, back home, but of course the two of them had just laughed it off and joked about that very slim possibility, because it was hers, hers and her aunt's, theirs only.

"I have to get the key back," Cassie said at last, one fist clenching in her lap and starting to tremble violently. The screen moved to show that there were tears threatening to spill out of her now-shiny green eyes, Winslow letting out a plaintive meow. "It's the only thing I have left of Aunt Cass."

The screen abruptly went black.

"It's the only thing I have left."

Onscreen-Cassie bolted upright, letting out a gasp as she clutched at her heart a bit, sounding a bit as if she was in pain.

When nothing immediately life-threatening happened, she slowly let her hands fall into her lap and looked around. She was sitting in the portal hallway, Petra eating something that looked remarkably like a piece of charred meat. Winslow and Lukas were sharing a fish, Lukas breaking off little bits alternatively and feeding one to Winslow, then one to himself, and so on. Ivor was rummaging around in his bag...

Lukas frowned a bit, eyes narrowing at the screen. "Hey, where's-?"

"Hey, Cassie."

Cassie jumped, whirling around to see Jesse standing behind her and regarding her with a serene expression.

"Oh. Never mind."

"What is it?" Cassie asked warily, her red eyes fading back to green fairly quickly.

If Jesse had noticed the way Cassie's eyes had turned red, she didn't give any indication, and just held out a rather large piece of toast with a set of her lower arms. "Want some toast?" she asked, mildly.

Cassie took the toast, taking a deep breath as Jesse shifted into a sitting position next to her. "S-sure. Thanks." Cassie then took a large bite of the toast, Jesse looking at her serenely. After a few moments of chewing, Cassie covered her mouth and asked, "You feeling better?"

"Much, thank you," Jesse told her mildly. "I don't think that calming potion's quite worn off yet, though I must say it's quite nice when it helps with sleeping. It makes it that much harder to get nightmares."

Cassie hastily swallowed her toast to respond, swallowed a little too quickly, and coughed, choking a bit. Jesse patted her on the back as Cassie quickly cleared her throat. "Cool."

Several audience members chuckled a bit at the monosyllabic answer.

Onscreen-Jesse had the same sentiment, chuckling a bit herself, before continuing, quite serenely still, "we're about to try another portal. It's that blue one over there-" and she indicated a dark blue portal glowing- well, dark blue. "You might wanna start getting ready."

"Alright, thanks," Cassie replied, covering her mouth again.

Jesse gave the girl a placid thumbs up before getting back up slowly and wandering back over to her other friends, starting a conversation with Lukas, who grinned and patted Winslow a bit.

Cassie went on eating her slice of toast, before pausing a bit. "... I can't help but wonder how different my life would've turned out if I'd just asked for help when I needed it."

Real-Cassie swallowed and squeezed her eyes shut from where Aiden was still hugging her.

She was starting to wonder that herself.

The screen slowly went black.

"I have a feeling that things will get exciting in a minute or two," Soren said after a few moments, attracting attention to the ginger-haired man.

"Yes. But the question is," Ivor said, softly, "is if it's in a good way or a bad way."

With that ominous note, the screen started fading back in.


A/N: Annnnd now stuff starts gettin' real fun :3 I hope y'all are ready.

The Cassie-centric chapter was actually quite fun to rewrite! :3

RQTC: What role do you think Cassie and Jace will have in Composite once I am actually able to write it?

I have plans, but I would like to see what you guys think :3

RQTC 2: Should I post my designs for the Hybrid Season 2 characters on deviantArt?

Responses to reviewers!

LunarStarsMoons: Yep, unfortunately it was intended that way. (winces) Poor Jesse. / Yep! / Ahhh. xD

S4SH4L4SH4theGaMeR101: I've read some of my old fanfictions and such cringe haha xD / Ahh, I see. xD

RapidSammi: Awww thanks! Glad you liked it Sammi-kun!

Infernius Flashfire: Ahh, sure if you'd like x3 / YEP!

LittleAngelbun: Expect more today x3

sailor . mikuchan: Cool, got it. xD

Toni42: (laughs) / Eh, not too well unfortunately. Though understandably, because here she's never done it before. / Hmmmm... interesting idea! I have no idea, to be honest xD

InsaneAcrobat: Cringe xD / Ah, I've read it before, it's lovely x3 / What the heck xD Uh... that's a bit difficult to read. / Gotcha. / (laughs)

AquaK13: Yeah... / I did answer the question, but wait until the beginning of Episode 8; a lot of things might get answered then. / Hehehehehe xD Someone made fanart of JACE in a dress, actually. / Hehehehe xD / Oh- wait, where did you hear that?! xD / x3 Yes, she's adorkable. / (laughs) Ahhhhh.

BeliTheGhoti0304: Ahhh, I see xD / I think the shortest chapter might be the first one, actually xD / Nope, it's the Cassie-centric one xD / RIGHT?! / (nods) Gotcha. / Ah, I see. / Cool!

Emily The Avenger: (laughs) Yep. / Hahaha I couldn't help myself xD / I'M GLAD YOU THINK SO!

Savannah-the-Caracal: Ahhh, I see. xD

x.X. A.L. X.x