The spider hybrid dropped to all eights and shot forward rapidly. "Okay... okay!" she muttered, under her breath, her right red eye cooling down to green again (although it was still a bit murky from all the red light in the cavern), "maybe I won't exactly kill PAMA, since I'm not even sure that's possible since it's a computer and not a living being..."

Despite herself, Harper snorted a bit. Jesse did have a point. 'Killing' a computer would involve more throwing it into Soren's grinder than what a spider (hybrid) could do to it.

"But I can definitely cause a few technical difficulties!" Jesse finished muttering, shooting forward even more rapidly.

"That was cheesy," Hadrian mumbled.

(This time he actually yelped a bit when Otto elbowed him in the ribs. That spot was really getting rather painful.)

"Yeah, true. I honestly can't see Jesse actually hurting anyone or anything, even if it did insult Reuben," Mevia mused, tapping her chin thoughtfully. (And she would know. She was the 'analyst' of the group.)

Jesse thought about that for a minute, momentarily distracted from what was going on onscreen. "... actually, that's true. I think most of my threats either involve emotionally 'breaking' someone, or it's just for the intimidation factor. I don't think I'd actually try to break people if they threatened my friends. If anything, I'd probably just threaten them."

Lukas grinned a bit, his attention momentarily taken off of what was going on onscreen. "And then go 'Well, okay, maybe I wouldn't do that' when they call your bluff."

"Yeah, that seems about right."

Axel 'coughed' a bit. (What? He could be subtle.)

"Either that," Ivor added, eyes still fixed on the screen (but Soren saw the way his lips twitched slightly), "or you'd scream at them until you lost your voice."

Despite herself, Isa couldn't help snorting a little at that. That was probably one of the most accurate statements.

"Or you'd just say puns all day until they break," Em added, rubbing her head almost tiredly at the idea.

Jesse immediately perked up at that herself, which made half of the audience chuckle a bit, having momentarily taken their attention off of what was going on onscreen. "Ooh, yeah, I'd probably do that."

Perhaps not the most accurate statement considering that Jace was supposed to be the wolf hybrid and not Jesse, but her bark definitely seemed a good deal worse than her bite.

"Jesse, look out!"

Onscreen, the spider hybrid's head snapped to her left to see Lukas leaping into the air, red-eyed gaze fixed right on Jesse-

The spider hybrid scuttled sideways in a half-jump-half-skitter, just in the nick of time as Lukas slammed onto the glass with such force that it actually shattered beneath them, Jesse letting out a startled yelp as the two of them dropped straight through the glass floor.

"Oh Notch!" Ellegaard gasped.

Jesse slammed onto her back with a pained grunt. "Ow! Damn, what is it with PAMA and wanting to stomp on me?" she muttered, slightly sarcastically, as she sat back up and rubbed her back quickly. She looked up- and then the spider hybrid's eyes widened as the screen zoomed out rapidly, showing that she'd actually dropped to the level where the Redstone Heart was still retracting into the floor.

"Oh- we've still got a chance!" Olivia gasped. "Just yank it out!"

The spider hybrid flipped back onto all eights, skittering forward before leaping over to the structure. She cleared the jump with no problem- actually, she overshot a little and almost went sailing straight over it, but she managed to catch herself in the nick of time- before her eyes widened.

"Crap, where's Lukas?" The spider hybrid's head turned from side to side- before spotting him at the base of the structure, straightening up.

Real-Lukas let out a relieved sigh. At least he was safe.

Mostly.

Onscreen-Jesse whipped back to the Heart so quickly that her hair flew around and smacked her in the face a little. She impatiently raked it out of her face, almost yanking her gold barrette out altogether, before lifting her fist (her uppermost left one) and leaning forward into a sharp punch, shattering a block of glass that had been holding it in place. Hopping up so that she was poised somewhat above the Heart, she managed to grab ahold of the edges of the Heart.

"Come on, come on!" she muttered under her breath, before leaning back and yanking on the Heart with all of her might-

Immediately, the entire cavern shook with that dangerous rumble, the lights nearly flickering out as PAMA's screen glitched out and Lukas gasped, staggering so badly that the audience was quite concerned that he was going to stagger right off of the ledge. The screen switched to show his face, Lukas's eyes flickering form red to blue-green to red to blue-green again as he clutched at his head with a scream.

"Ow- my- HEAD!" Lukas screamed, the spider hybrid's eyes widening in shock at his shout and automatically releasing the Redstone Heart as she turned to look at Lukas, who was shaking his head furiously as if he was trying to shake PAMA out.

"Don't just stop, yank it out! Yank it out!" Dan was yelling, and Real-Lukas's shoulders were relaxing slightly because Notch he was alive, he was okay for the most part, and Petra was shouting at the screen herself so quickly and so loudly that it was actually indecipherable, and Jace's hand was tight on Jesse's-

"Jesse- ARGH!" Lukas's head suddenly snapped forward with painful force, before he lifted his head to glare at her, eyes back to that glowing, dull red. "You are being silly."

"Fight it, Lukas!" Jesse shouted to him, green-and-red eyes flashing with worry, "fight-"

Lukas suddenly sprang into the air, slamming into Jesse with so much force that it knocked the wind out of her and sent her toppling backwards towards the abyss with redstone and repeaters and who knows what else below them, Lukas catching ahold of the edge and Jesse's hand barely catching his ankle at the last second as they swung crazily over what looked a lot like certain death, Lukas's breathing quickening into hyperventilation as the Redstone Heart thudded away rhythmically above them and the audience let out startled shouts.

"Oh Notch, oh Notch, oh Notch," Olivia was chanting over and over again, head hidden in her hands, and Stampy was yelling something incoherently, and Harper looked as though she were about to be sick.

"Jesse- I can't stop it-!" Lukas groaned, his fingers barely clinging onto the ledge, his voice sounding more fragile than glass, "PAMA's too-"

A loud beeping sound as Lukas's eyes flashed shut, opening to reveal those dull red eyes once again, as he calmly intoned with that horrible... overlay of PAMA's voice, "This has gone too far. I will destroy you both to preserve functionality."

Lukas's hand released the edge- Mevia startled everyone, including herself, by letting out a shriek-

The other hand stabbed out and barely snagged the edge, Lukas letting out a pained cry as his body shuddered unnaturally, eyes going back to blue-green as he looked back up, eyes narrowing as his fingers tightened desperately. "I- I can't hold on much longer, Jesse!" he groaned, and indeed his body was shuddering violently and unnaturally.

Real-Lukas entwined his hand with Jesse's and squeezed, feeling his heart trying to beat its way out of his ribcage.

A moment later, she squeezed back.

"You are not giving up on me, you are not giving up on us, I'm not letting you!" Jesse almost snapped back, "I can save you if I just-" Cutting herself off, she reached up with her her free uppermost arm and randomly fired a web. Through sheer luck, she managed to hit a glass ledge just above the Redstone Heart.

The spider hybrid simultaneously released Lukas's ankle and flicked her wrist, making the web retract sharply and sent her flying through the air as PAMA let out another groan of pain, body shuddering violently and making half of the audience worry that all of that shaking was just going to rattle him right off of the ledge. "My head... feels like it's on fire..." he gasped.

Jesse slammed into the glass ledge with a yelp and dropped back down to the level where the Redstone Heart was, managing to catch herself by slamming her midriff onto the glass area and shattering another block of glass that was a bit more next to the Redstone Heart.

The entire audience winced.

"I can't think straight... get out of my head, PAMA!" Lukas actually screamed, Jesse rubbing her head and letting out a moan of pain from where she'd rather painfully landed on the glass ledge.

"That- okay- might've dislocated something," Jesse mumbled, shaking her head furiously as if trying to clear a haze of pain, and she'd just scrambled back to her feet and touched the Heart, preparing to yank it out once again-

"Jesse, if you do not stop, I will kill everyone who has been made useful!"

The spider hybrid froze in place.

In Lukas's lap, Jesse froze as well.

"Wh...?" The spider hybrid slowly turned to see Lukas, staring at her with serious dull-red eyes, yet somehow... with a victorious sort of smirk on its face. "What do you mean... you'll kill everyone who's been made useful?"

Harper looked as though she might faint.

"Harper- that's not possible. PAMA's bluffing, right?" Ivor turned to look at Harper, concern dancing in his eyes wildly as he regarded her uneasily, desperate for her to tell him that this wasn't true, PAMA couldn't do that, it was just a bluff- a trick, even though the expression on Harper's face was pretty much screaming otherwise. "PAMA can't... can't kill everyone who's chipped, right?"

"... forced termination sequence."

Someone should've been in that room with them to prove that, yes, a room could become this utterly still and silent with just three words.

"What?" Soren finally whispered. He might as well have screamed it, though, what with the utter silence in the room.

"I mean what I mean, Jesse," PAMA stated through Lukas, Lukas's mouth moving and forming the words unnaturally, artificially. "With the chips hooked right into the minds of the people, a simple electrical signal can be enough to tell their minds to stop functioning. To have the mind tell the body to stop working. The wonders of technology have expanded science to allow for near-instantaneous termination of a... not-useful person."

"When- when I created PAMA," Harper began, unsteadily, barely able to form the words through the bile beginning to build in her throat, "the program would occasionally fail to control a mob, yet would also make them incredibly resilient. You saw... the resilience in effect when you first got to Crown Mesa."

Mevia's eyes widened.

"So... I created a certain command within the system. If a zombie, for example, was hooked up, yet the program wasn't functioning the way it should've, PAMA had full administrator privileges to force a 'termination sequence' on the zombie- meaning that it killed it instantaneously. With the chips, the termination could be done remotely- all the administrator had to do," Harper's voice had become a whisper, "was input the command and the code number for the mob in question... and the system would do the rest."

She swallowed hard before adding, even more unsteadily than before, "I... took it a step further than that. In case the program ever malfunctioned... I gave PAMA full permission to... to do a forced termination sequence for everything that was chipped up to it. But it should've been a last-ditch command and showed up in a dire situation... not like this..." Harper looked as though she were about to go throw up in the potted plant in the corner.

Isa suddenly looked a bit like she wanted to join Harper in the throw-up corner. "Unless PAMA considers being deactivated a 'dire situation'... in which case that command might've showed up either way."

"Why did you give it full admin privileges to- to essentially kill people?! That's idiotic!" Hadrian snapped at Harper.

"I never thought it would start controlling people!" Harper snapped back, her shoulders trembling. "I- I never-"

Ivor put a reassuring hand on her shoulder, but he didn't know what to say, he didn't know how to comfort her, he wasn't good at these things, he didn't know what to do in this situation-

The spider hybrid shook her head slowly. "You... you can't do that. That's not possible..." She was speaking slowly though, carefully, as if she was terrified that one wrong word, one wrong movement, and PAMA was going to prove her wrong and make everyone hooked up to it drop dead on the spot.

"My Creator granted me administrator privileges to this ability. Originally, it was only to terminate... useless beings. But if you do not cease trying to deactivate me," and Lukas was smiling in a strange way, an unnatural way, one that PAMA was forcing him to make. "I will terminate everyone."

Jesse was silent for a moment. You could practically see the cogs turning in her uncertain green-and-red eyes.

"... what if I terminate you instead?" She hadn't even finished her sentence when her sword had come hissing out of its sheathe and was hovering dangerously over the Redstone Heart, the tip actually touching the pulsing, beating block.

Hadrian opened his mouth to protest, paused, and then shut it again with the softest sigh.

Instead of looking panicked, or shocked, Lukas-PAMA looked almost amused. "I know what you are like, Jesse. My brief period of making both Petra, and Lukas, 'useful', gave me insight to what you are like. You will not kill me. You would not be able to."

The spider hybrid didn't deny it; she just looked down at her feet, hair hiding her face from view. Her fist tightened on the sword hilt instead, and you could see the tiniest of worried tremors spreading through her hands.

The audience gave Real-Jesse looks that were unreadable. She didn't see any of them, staring at the screen with a nearly white face.

For all of her talk and (sometimes joking) threatening, she couldn't kill anything. Not something sentient.

The Witherstorm, sure. Embodying it as a literal storm that ate everything and had only the most primal instincts, that made it easy to get rid of. Especially when you considered that its life force was connected to a literal block. Zombies and skeletons, sure. They were trying to kill her, and even if they'd once been sentient, they now had been almost 'reprogrammed' to kill. They were easy.

But actual people.

Living, breathing, people that could think, and talk, and laugh, and groan.

Even if they were the epitome of evil, killing them- even hurting them beyond repair- would probably destroy Jesse.

And PAMA.

Despite what her gut told her, which was that PAMA was an artificial intelligence, not alive, certainly not breathing, and similar to the Witherstorm in a way that it was connected to, 'living off of' something that wasn't anything living or breathing or even remotely sentient...

She just couldn't kill it.

Deactivate, sure. Jesse could just think of it as turning it off temporarily. You could always pop the Redstone Heart back in and bring the computer back.

But kill...

No.

"Besides," and PAMA, through Lukas, shrugged a bit. "The command to kill anything that is currently useful to me... is nearly instantaneous. You would never be able to kill me in time before I could complete the command."

Jesse just stayed silent. So did the audience.

"... alright."

Jesse's voice, that one word, had almost been more like an exhalation of air than speaking it aloud. She lifted her head, showing that her green-and-red eyes were beading up with tears as she slowly sheathed her sword. "I'll stop, I won't try to stop you, I'll even let you make me useful, just please-" Jesse's voice caught as she slowly let her hands drop loosely to her sides, blinking and making tears threaten to spill out of her eyes even more.

"Please don't hurt them."

"Jesse..." Petra began, but she let her voice trail off.

Was there really anything else she could say about the whole thing?

Sure, she could yell at Jesse, but that wasn't going to fix anything, now was it?

Lukas-PAMA was silent for a moment.

"You are too dangerous to make useful. A loose variable."

And then, before anyone could react with dread or even frown at that, the spider hybrid staggered backwards, eyes widening in shock, Lukas having just slammed his hands into her shoulders and sent her flying backwards-

And Jesse fell.

"NO!" Lukas actually screamed, so loudly that it actually made Axel flinch, his eyes wide with horror at what he'd just done, and the girl in his lap was just frozen there in pure shock as the entire audience watched, almost in slow motion, as Jesse slowly fell backwards over the edge, her eyes wide with shock...

And then she fell out of sight.

There was three heartbeats of pure, stunned silence...

And then all hell broke loose.

"No no no no no nononononononono-!" Lukas nearly screamed, hands up to his mouth in shock, "this can't be happening, this cannot be happening-!"

Real-Jesse was still frozen in pure shock in his lap as Petra let out an enraged yell and slammed her fist into the floor so hard that her knuckles split a little and started bleeding, Jace starting to tremble as he continued staring at the screen in shock. Olivia was torn between crying and screaming, if the way her mouth was working silently while she sat and stared while tears beaded in her eyes was any indication, and Axel had let out a loud, strangled sort of yell before punching the coffee table, which skidded several feet from the force of his hit.

Soren was frozen in surprise, while Gabriel had actually slid out of the seat onto the floor with his mouth hanging open. Ellegaard had buried her head in her hands, and Magnus was torn between comforting Ellie and blowing something up. Ivor had curled up into a sort of ball, head buried in his arms and his elbows resting on his knees while Harper was shaking her head, shoulders trembling violently.

Aiden was cussing PAMA out again, joined this time by Cassie (who added several very foreign swears to the tirade) and Winslow, who sounded a lot like he was yowling all of the kitty curses he knew at PAMA. Maya had her head in her hands and was actually sobbing a little bit, while Gill was muttering something suspiciously along the lines of 'dammit' under his breath and shaking his head over and over. Stampy was practically shouting "oh no!" over and over, while Lizzie was making incoherent yelping sounds and Stacy was babbling. Sparklez was frozen in surprise, while Dan's hair was red- no, white- no, green- no, dark blue- no...

Isa had actually screamed and squeezed Benedict instinctively so hard that the chicken was now flapping its wings furiously, sending a storm of feathers into the air and hitting both Isa and Milo in the face, Reginald had half-yanked his sword out, and Milo was just gaping soundlessly at the screen, ignoring the fact that Benedict was fluttering around and squawking loudly.

Em hadn't actually yelled or anything, but she was actually frozen still in quite a deal of surprise, and Nell had let out a sort of scream. The gladiator's couch had actually fallen over, and Slab, Clutch, and Facemeat were all trying to get out at the same time so that they could put the couch back up. Otto was frozen still in surprise, while Hadrian was blinking rapidly and Mevia was shaking her head in disbelief.

After watching Jesse go through so much, survive so many ridiculously dangerous situations...

Was she really gone?

The screen switched to show Lukas's eyes suddenly flickering back to green, and his eyes widened. "No... no!" He was shaking badly, teeth gritting, and if the audience looked closely they could see tears building up in his eyes. "Oh Notch, no..."

His shoulders trembled violently, before he glanced over his shoulder at the Redstone Heart, still pounding away rhythmically.

Not a full second passed when he was running towards it, skidding to a halt right in front of it, reaching out as if preparing to wrench it out-

Before freezing.

"Hm... you are surprisingly resilient." PAMA's voice sounded through Lukas's, but Lukas's voice sounded more pained beneath the overlay of PAMA's voice, "but, you are still no match for me."

The screen switched to show Lukas, whose eyes were flickering between dull red and green-blue so rapidly that it was honestly a little dizzying. "No," he gritted out, but it was obvious that that single word was taking a gargantuan amount of effort to get out.

"Why do you still resist? Your friend is gone. And soon... your other friends will be gone too. You will have been completely useless to them," PAMA continued speaking, ignoring Lukas's plight.

The blonde ocelot hybrid's shoulders trembled even more violently, squeezing his eyes shut and forcing more tears down his cheeks, pain written into every orifice on his face, teeth gritted tightly and showing the sharper fangs, silently but no less desperately battling PAMA, trying to force it out.

Yet, and none of the audience wanted to say anything...

Lukas looked like he was losing.


A/N: I was actually going to just finish the whole thing, but then the chapter got pretty long, so I'll just finish it up next time. :3

RQTC: Do y'all see what I meant when I said you'd hate me after this chapter now? xD

Also-

WE HAVE OVER 92,000 VIEWS ON THIS STORY.

THAT'S ALMOST 100,000.

HOW AND WHY?!

Guys, thank you SO much! I'm pretty sure you're getting sick of me thanking you every time but my Notch I'm genuinely thankful and excited and (honestly) seriously shocked that we're getting to these points! Really and truly, thank you SO much guys.

Responses to reviews:

LunarTheMooncake: I honestly wanted to include them, but with them being identical twins and me wanting to have a funny factor, I would've needed to put either both or neither for the best result, and since there were so many others, I ended up deciding on neither. / Ah, yeah. / (laughs) Sorry.

lol: Ah, thank you! I'm glad you like it. Also, I like your guest name haha.

MysticKitty: I'm glad you're excited! I'm very excited to include all of the characters. And your submissions were really nice! I loved them.

Emily The Avenger: (chuckles)

ZenSpider: (chuckles) I noticed. / The only thing I will say is that Jesse DOES have to go back to her world.

Guest: (chuckles) Yeah, true.

RapidSammi: You're going to be even more upset with PAMA this chapter, hahaha, so... xD

ThatBritishGuy: (chuckles) I don't think that'll happen, but that would be nice, huh? / Er... sure? / Haha (laughs nervously)

RavenBlaze4850: (chuckles) Yeaaaaaah, PAMA's... woo, PAMA's in trouble. / No, your character was fine! Honestly, it was really difficult picking, and I wanted to keep the speaking roles more or less balanced... which was hard with the very small amount of male characters that were submitted. xD / (whistles casually)

Crystal: No problem! Good job, by the way. :) / (laughs) she hasn't snapped. Just got suuuuper pissed. xD

andie: Actually, one of the only traits that Jesse (this one) shares with me is that when people mess with the people I care about, I pretty much turn into the vocal embodiment of Satan and start screaming and yelling at the other person. Most of the time when Jesse says something like that, she's going to emotionally break 'em by screaming at them... or she's just going to threaten them and try to scare the pants off of 'em. She's rarely actually going to 'have crazy power for no reason and show no mercy'. (laughs uncomfortably) I, uh, I guess I'm a bit of a Mary Sue then.

Kari4ever15: (laughs)

InsaneAcrobat: Jesse would rarely ever actually 'murder some fools' (read my reply to andie's review). / Honestly, I think it was because Oliver was one of the few guys that existed in the list, and he was also a fairly good character. / Uhhhmmmmm... / Magic. Magic would definitely be a big bonus for me.

homeworkoverload: (laughs) No problem!

AquaK13: 'Blonde child' xD / (looks at the ceiling; starts whistling) / No, actually, yours was perfect! Thanks a ton! / I would like to hear your 'wise voice' lolol

KaosRuin: I think that is the day when Reuben grows gryphon wings and starts to fly. xD / (walks away silently) / Nah, she was great! I liked her a lot.

A Random Guest: (grins) No problem! (high fives) / Haha, thanks! And yeah, can you imagine? xD

ShiningHopeBeast: Nahh, it's cool! Yours were pretty great. It was honestly a pretty tight decision to make, but I really did love your characters! / Hahahaha, I love it too. xD

LegoGirl794: Hmm, good point. / No, Hadrian didn't do anything much.

Mikaza1498: (swings a tight u-turn) (walks away) (hides)

ForgotMyPassword: How did you forget your password...?!

Rabbits rule: No, not this chapter. Maybe you posted a comment on Composite?

S4SH4L4SH4theGaMeR101: Haha, more like she'll just start threatening you and trying to intimidate you. / Yeah, probably! (More than one time honestly, lol.)

That's all for this time. See ya, so long, and g'bye!

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