Mevia was a little confused.
Hadrian had taken ahold of Mevia's shoulder and essentially steered her through the maze-like hallways of the house, backtracking and turning and walking away whenever they encountered anyone else. She'd tried to strike up a conversation with him to find out exactly what in the world was going on, but whenever she tried he'd simply reply with a terse "Not now."
Finally, they reached a door that led outside, and Hadrian opened the door and led Mevia outside. Mevia was still quite bemused, but followed along obediently. This had to be fairly important if they couldn't discuss it in front of anybody.
And if they were walking this far away from the house. Mevia had checked over her shoulder a few times upon entering the woods surrounding the house, but after a certain distance she couldn't see anything except for more trees. She hoped Hadrian knew where he was going.
Hadrian abruptly came to a halt the moment she thought that, and his hand dropped off of her shoulder as he took a step back, regarding Mevia with those hard, onyx eyes. She hadn't seen those eyes look that hard towards her- not for a while, at least.
The last time she could remember him looking that serious was when they'd found out that Soren had run off with the Command Block. After Isa, and Harper... well, that didn't matter.
"Er... what did you need to talk to me about, Hadrian?" Mevia asked, slightly awkwardly. Try as she could, she couldn't think of anything that was this important. And unlike with Harper, who she'd known for the longest time, she didn't have that sort of mental 'connection' with Hadrian. She might be closer to him than she was to Otto, but... she'd been honestly closer with Harper.
Hadrian was regarding Mevia, staring at her with an even expression. He didn't say anything for a few moments, letting the silence stretch out awkwardly. "You've gotten close to Jesse, haven't you?" he said, at last, almost abruptly.
"Huh?"
Mevia was now officially startled. She didn't know where that had come from.
Sure, she got along with Jesse, but everyone got along with Jesse.
And... okay, yes, she'd started getting a little attached to Jesse, but she dared anybody to spend more than three days with this girl and not get a little attached to her. She was a sweetheart. Even Ivor and Aiden, who, when she'd first met them, hadn't liked Jesse at all, seemed to get along with her well.
Heck, Mevia was pretty sure Ivor was Jesse's adopted father at this point.
"Well... I don't... where is this coming from?" Mevia asked at last, unsure of what else to say.
Now that Mevia was looking closely, she could see Hadrian's expression wasn't just serious. It was cold. Hadrian hadn't looked at her that coldly... ever. Others, sure, occasionally Otto or- once, he'd looked at Isa that way... but he had never stared at her with such a frigid expression before.
Shivers went up her spine, and it had nothing to do with the temperature of the air around her.
"You don't care about the Redstone Heart much anymore." Hadrian spoke precisely, and even though his tone was light and casual, it was also strangely deliberate. "You seem to be more worried about Jesse." He paused, before continuing, casually, "I'm tellin' ya, Mevia, you seem... off."
Mevia couldn't say anything for a moment, mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water. She finally muttered, slightly weakly, "Well... maybe I do care about Jesse a little bit."
Hadrian kept looking at Mevia. For some reason, the pale-blue-haired Ancient Architect felt as if he was trying to take her apart with his eyes. His expression was completely unreadable, but his eyes were just... frigid. Icy.
When the Ancient Architect next spoke, he did so almost delicately, voice casual but dark and almost... threatening. "Perhaps you should... just stay away from the kid, then."
"Why?"
Mevia knew she sounded defensive and a little annoyed, but she honestly couldn't see a good reason for doing that. Caring about another person wasn't a crime.
Though... now that she was thinking about it, it had been a while since she'd had that mentality, hadn't it? She hadn't cared about anyone except herself, Hadrian, and maybe Otto in a long, long, long while.
And now here she was, caring about Jesse.
And she'd been talking to Harper more, hadn't she? In fact, she'd stopped talking as if she was an announcer most of the time and was just being incredibly friendly to Harper, and Otto, and whenever she bumped into Soren and Isa she'd been friendly to them, too.
Huh. That had changed.
She wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not.
"Well..." Hadrian was speaking again, and now his tone was definitely threatening, casual though it was. "It's quite easy for something bad to happen to a person."
Mevia's shoulders tensed, and her eyes narrowed at the other man. "... are- are you threatening me, Hadrian?" she asked him at last, eyes narrowed dangerously as she regarded him.
"Oh, not you," Hadrian chuckled, waving at Mevia dismissively, "er, no, I'm just saying... well, Jesse isn't exactly much of a fighter here, it would be a shame if she were to get hurt... or to get in an... accident."
Mevia's eyes widened. "... you're... threatening... Jesse?" she asked slowly, in slight disbelief.
"Well, she seems to be a bit of a threat, so she'll... probably get in an, ah... accident regardless," Hadrian mused, adjusting his glasses. "But... it might be better if you distance yourself from her from now on."
"Are you- are you joking," Mevia stated, staring at Hadrian in disbelief. "You're- you're going to kill Jesse." Though both could've been asked as a question, neither were spoken as one.
Hadrian didn't say anything- he just smirked. "Call it insurance."
The woman scoffed in disbelief at that statement. Some insurance. "Insurance? Insurance for-?" Mevia suddenly stopped, eyes widening as what he meant hit her like a sledgehammer. "The Games... you think she's a threat to the Games."
Hadrian's smirk grew bigger.
Mevia exploded. "Are you joking?! You're going to kill Jesse just so we can keep the Games going?!" she nearly spit out, glaring at Hadrian. "This isn't the Games, you know, there's no respawn here, if she dies here she's dead permanently." Was Mevia okay with people dying in the Games? Yes, because it wasn't permanent. No one could actually get hurt in the Games permanently- if they did, they'd just respawn good as new.
But here... as far as Mevia was aware, here there was no respawn. If anybody died here, it was permanent.
If Jesse died here, she was dead for good.
"I'm aware."
"You- you're aware. You're aware." Mevia inhaled a shaky, furious breath. Exhaling it felt like she was exhaling flames, from how her throat felt like it was being seared with a burning hot iron. "Okay. You're aware. You're aware, that you're planning on murdering a young girl?! There are no respawn zones. This isn't the Games. People dying in the Games is one thing, because they simply respawn later," her temper was bubbling dangerously close to the surface, "but here- where there's no respawn. Are you out of your bloody mind?!"
Hadrian's expression turned cold again as he regarded Mevia. "I take it you don't agree, then."
She didn't know how he was sounding so calm. How he could look at her plainly without any sign of even discomfort at the idea of killing someone, especially in a place with no respawn zones.
"You bet I don't agree," Mevia practically seethed, "this is- this is different. Killing people in the Games is one thing, but this... this is murder."
Mevia didn't know why she was getting so worked up about this. It was only one girl, after all. One girl dying, compared to dozens every time they played the Games. One young girl that Mevia actually cared about, that people actually cared about. That Mevia was starting to get more attached to than she had thought. That Mevia, now that she was reacting this way, maybe cared about Jesse more than she was willing to admit.
Hadrian regarded Mevia as she continued speaking, voice trembling as she tried to keep herself from actively screaming at him. "I don't know what you think you're doing, but if you think you can just kill Jesse, you're wrong. There's no way-"
"That you'll let me?" Notch, Hadrian's voice was infuriating her.
It was strange... only an hour before, she'd still been perfectly fine with Hadrian, and now she was actively restraining herself from screaming at him in fury.
Hadrian regarded Mevia calmly as she struggled to rein her temper in because screaming at Hadrian wasn't going to fix anything, screaming at Hadrian wasn't going to fix anything, still with that cold expression on his face, and then-
A blinding pain exploded in Mevia's cheek, and Mevia staggered sideways before stumbling backwards, catching herself before she could fall to the ground using a tree and blinking away the stars that had formed in her eyes, even though it wasn't anywhere near nighttime. She reached up to cup the side of her face, feeling the numbing pain fade away to let stinging replace it, and despite everything, despite the fact that she felt more shocked and numb than anything else, she could feel tears reflexively forming in the corners of her eyes.
Hadrian had just slapped her.
Hadrian had just slapped her.
They'd argued before, of course, but... he had never hit her before.
"Remember," he spoke coldly, no pretense of being casual anymore, no pretense of acting friendly anymore "it's very easy to hurt people. I have no intention of hurting you. But if you try to interfere with this," his gaze turned icier with each word, "I can't promise your safety. Warn Jesse, try to warn her, try to keep her alive, try to keep her safe, tell anyone about this, and you had better remember this," he'd started walking towards her, and now Mevia was feebly edging backwards, still in slight shock.
He leaned forward, lips right next to her ears as she weakly tried to move away from him, voice a venomous hiss, "I will kill her, and then I will kill you. And I will make sure both are slow and very, very painful." A moment later, he pulled away, regarding Mevia, whose eyes were wide with fear and shock. His dark eyes were icier than Mevia had ever seen them before. It was...
Frightening.
"Understand?" he asked, slowly.
Mevia was frozen in shock, one hand still pressed over her stinging cheek as she stared at him, and his eyes darkened further. "Understand?" he repeated, any calm in his voice replaced with a venomous snarl.
Slowly, Mevia simply nodded. What else could she say? What else was she supposed to say?
Slowly, a smile crept over Hadrian's face- one that sent chills creeping up Mevia's numb spine. "Excellent." Clapping her on the shoulder, he gave her a grin. "Don't worry. Once she's out of the way, you don't have to worry about anyone anymore."
With that, he strolled out of the woods in the direction they'd come, leaving Mevia alone and leaning against a tree with one hand cupped to her still-stinging cheek, eyes wide as she stared at nothing, an icy chill pervading her body despite the fact that it had to be mid-summer from the color the trees were showing.
Slowly, Mevia's legs gave out, and she slid to the ground, still staring silently at nothing at all.
Which was probably why she didn't notice the figure slipping through the trees back in the direction of the house, having heard the entire thing.
It had taken her half an hour, but Mevia had finally made her way back to the house, still feeling strangely numb inside.
If she so much as tried to warn Jesse about Hadrian, Jesse was going to die. If she kept her distance from Jesse, Jesse was going to die. If she did anything, Jesse was going to die, and if she didn't do anything, Jesse was going to die.
Mevia was pretty sure that this is what people usually called a 'lose-lose' situation.
"Hey, Mevia!"
Mevia flinched violently at the sound of the cheerful voice- the last person she wanted to see right now. Looking up, she realized she must've accidentally wandered into the armory, instinctively looking for the one thing that could usually calm her down.
Jesse was standing- well, actually, more accurately she was sitting- in the center of the room, Petra holding out a wooden sword and turning to see Mevia with a look of slight surprise coming over her face. Nearby, Isa, Reginald, and Gabriel had similar surprised expressions on their faces as they regarded Mevia.
Clambering to her feet, Jesse gave Mevia a cheery grin. "Did you come here for more practice?" she asked, almost perkily.
Mevia felt an inexplicable jerk of pain at the idea of Jesse being silenced permanently, deep in her gut.
"Er- yes, I wanted to- to get some practice in," Mevia nodded, cursing the way her tongue stuttered a little bit. She supposed it was true. Fighting or practicing usually helped calm her down or feel better.
Jesse grinned. "Great! Then we can practice some more!"
That was the last thing Mevia wanted.
"Uhh... you guys were practicing earlier?" Petra asked, looking from Mevia to Jesse with a bewildered expression on her face. She had a look of pure confusion dancing in her eyes.
"Yep!" Jesse said cheerfully. "She's really good at fighting." Upon spotting Mevia's expression, her own smile faded a little bit. "Well, I mean, you don't have to, if you don't want to..."
"No!"
Mevia realized she'd practically shouted at Jesse just now, and felt her cheeks heat up as she coughed awkwardly, trying to sound less desperate. Swordfighting with Jesse really might help Mevia feel better. Swordfighting with ANYONE might help her feel better. "I mean... no, no, I can- I don't mind practicing with you."
Jesse regarded Mevia for a moment, her expression still a bit blank as she looked at Mevia. She clearly seemed to sense there was something wrong...
A slow, empathetic smile came over her face. "Alright, then," she said, kindly. "Let's get to practicing, then."
Petra hesitated a moment, before shrugging and holding the wooden blade in her hand out to the blue-haired Ancient Architect. Her eyes were slightly wary but still calm enough- probably the redhead saw that Jesse was really alright with sparring with Mevia.
Mevia took it, glad that her hands weren't trembling. Or, well, at least not noticeably.
Isa chuckled a bit, letting her own wooden blade rest at her side. "Don't expect her to go easy on you," she said, voice teasing and a little musical.
"Like you guys have been going easy on me?" Jesse replied cheerfully without skipping a beat, readying her own wooden sword.
Reginald chuckled. "She's got a point."
And with that, the practice match started.
Mevia ran straight at Jesse, swinging the sword with a lightning-quick series of strikes. The first time she'd tried that trick on Jesse, Jesse had actually gotten hit almost immediately, and even when they'd continued practicing, Jesse still kept getting hit-
-but now, Jesse ducked the first blow and then blocked the rest by flinging the sword up into a horizontal, blocking most of the slashing hits Mevia was trying to deal on Jesse.
Jesse's eyes lit up with excitement at being able to stop it. "Ha- I stopped it!" she squeaked, sounding excited.
Dead eyes.
Mevia gritted her teeth at the thought of those green eyes never lighting up like that again, and lashed out with another attack- this time trying to hit a nerve in Jesse's elbow. (This nerve was commonly known as the funny bone.) To her faint surprise, Jesse was able to dodge this attack and counterattacked, nearly smacking Mevia full in the head with the wooden sword. It was with a superb speed that Mevia's reflexes allowed her to narrowly dodge to the side, barely avoiding the sword by a hair's breadth, before thrusting at Jesse's face-
Jesse slammed the wooden blade aside, sending a firm jolting sensation up Mevia's shoulder as Jesse narrowly managed to block it and causing the pale-blue-haired woman's eyebrow to shoot up in surprise. Jesse had improved at fighting fast.
Jesse seemed to have the same sentiment, because she gave Mevia an excited grin.
A death rictus.
Mevia's jaw tightened, and now she was lashing out harder and harder against Jesse, but Jesse had gotten really good, because now she was mostly dodging the crushing blows instead of instinctively trying to block them, although she also seemed to be able to understand when blocking was a good strategy.
Don't focus on the opponent's strengths.
Despite the fact that Mevia didn't usually hold back in a fight, she'd been holding back against Jesse because the girl wasn't really very good yet, she was still a kid, she didn't know how to fight properly here, but she was now unleashing every attack she could, and Jesse seemed to be slightly off-guard now because the force and pure ferocity of these attacks were simply getting to the point where it was actually disconcerting, but Mevia didn't pull back, she didn't stop because now her brain had snapped into combat mode.
Focus on their weaknesses.
Jesse was still not an extremely good fighter, so when Mevia's sword whipped into a side cut, she instinctively moved to block it from the side-
Mevia swung the sword up into an overhand slash right at Jesse's head, and Jesse let out a little gasp and threw her arm up to block it instinctively. The wooden sword cracked painfully against Jesse's wrist, the force of the hit beating Jesse to her knees with a pained little cry.
But Mevia didn't stop there. She couldn't, not in the middle of combat mode, not while her emotions were swirling around in her like a tempest.
Make sure your opponent is thoroughly beaten.
Mevia brought the sword down again, this time hitting Jesse's forearm with a sickening amount of force. Every bystander in the room could hear something snap in Jesse's arm, and now Mevia could dully hear shouting and alarmed exclamations and another cry of pain but she wasn't done, she wasn't practicing against Jesse anymore, she was in the middle of a combat situation and she couldn't stop-
Hit them.
Mevia lashed out with the wooden sword in her hand again, this time cracking against the top of Jesse's skull, and now she could see the girl curling up on herself into a little ball to shield herself from further attacks, and she wasn't feeling anything even though she could hear alarmed exclamations through the blood roaring through her ears.
She just knew that she was winning.
Hurt them.
Mevia began to bring the sword down again-
A sharp crack rang out, making her fingers spasm in pain as the wooden blade cracked angrily against her fingers, making Mevia flinch in shock. She didn't automatically release the sword, like most people would have- instead, her hand tightened on the wooden blade automatically.
A hand grabbed Mevia by the shoulder, spun her around, and Mevia hardly had time to be angry or surprised or feel anything before a hand slammed into the same cheek that Hadrian had hit earlier, sending a chilling shockwave through her system and snapping her out of combat mode. Mevia blinked in surprise before looking up to see Petra glowering at Mevia and practically seething with fury. "What," she demanded, "the hell is wrong with you?!" The redhead practically screamed the last few words, looking as if she could practically kill Mevia right now.
Mevia blinked again, before becoming aware that there was an almost animalistic, and very desperate keening sound.
One that she'd unfortunately heard before.
Her heart sank as she whipped back around-
Jesse was curled up in a little ball, trembling as she rocked back and forth, keening piteously with her hands clamped over her ears. She was trembling so badly she was practically vibrating as Gabriel crouched next to her and tried to coax her back out, but no matter what he tried this time she wasn't responding, she was just scooting backwards and shaking her head and trying to get away.
No.
No no no.
The sword dropped from Mevia's hands, and she dropped to her knees, trying to reach out to Jesse, desperately trying to calm her down because that wasn't what she'd been trying to do she hadn't realized she'd snapped into combat mode this wasn't what she wanted-
Isa hauled Mevia away from Jesse and back to Mevia's feet, making Mevia flinch in surprise. "Don't touch her!" Isa's voice was unexpectedly sharp as Mevia looked up at her old friend, except now Isa's eyes and facial expression was practically bubbling over with fury. "Haven't you already done enough for one day?"
Mevia opened her mouth to say something, anything-
The door banged open, and suddenly the room was getting crowded because now there was Lukas, and Ivor, and Jace, and Nell and Harper were there, and-
Mevia's heart sank again. No.
No, no, no.
The last person she wanted to see right now.
Hadrian was standing in the back, looking startled... and almost threatening at the sight of Mevia crouched on the floor near Jesse.
"What happened in here? We heard shouting-" Lukas's eyes fell on Jesse, and his face blanched a bit. "Jesse?" he went to go kneel next to her, but she just shook her head and tried to move away from him. Lukas turned to face the others, worry evident in his expression. "What happened?"
Gabriel let out a sound that was remarkably like a snarl. "We were just practicing and then Mevia came in and started practicing with Jesse and then she started- started trying to beat her with the wooden sword-"
Lukas turned on Mevia, face frozen in disbelief but eyes glinting with anger. "What?"
"Yes, what?" Ivor turned to face Mevia as well, gaze turning icy and hard and threatening death and destruction if she didn't tell the truth now. Harper's expression became a mixture of shock and anger and... disappointment...?
Mevia could now feel every eye in the room fixed on her. And she was conscious of the fact that Hadrian's threatening expression had turned into a strange sort of smirk. The only sound in the room that was audible was Jesse's desperate keening, yet the air was so heavy it was crushing Mevia's lungs, it was crushing her because she couldn't breathe, she was suddenly frozen still, she couldn't breathe.
She moved so suddenly that she even surprised herself a little bit. She jerked her arm out of Isa's grip.
Can't stay here.
Ran past Jesse and the rest of the group for the hallway.
I didn't want this.
Did her best to avoid even touching Hadrian because if she did she was going to break down and she couldn't, not now, not while she couldn't inhale.
Can't breathe.
Raced down the hallway, dimly aware of footsteps pounding away in the hallway behind her. Someone was running after her, chasing after her, and she could dimly hear them calling after her, hear them all calling after her, hear people clamoring. Hadrian had to be running after her, or maybe he'd sent a gladiator to fetch her.
So she just kept running.
This isn't what I wanted.
A/N: Can I say this was extremely fun to write even though it was way too unhappy for it to be natural? Gah.
Okay, so I've got another fanfiction I'm introducing tomorrow. Probably won't continue it for a while, but it's just one that I wanna put up for fun. And who knows, I might add it to the list of fanfictions I'm doing.
Also there's going to be a thing I'm adding soon that I hope you guys will like. It will probably turn into a running joke.
Responses to reviews!
Destroyered: Haha, I figured she was acting like an aunt. And considering who Jesse's adopted 'dad' is, that would be awkward. xD
Emily The Avenger: Glad you like it! / Haha is it really? / Yaaas
KaosRuin: Even if they don't, it's still a fantastic way to close off the season and I loved it. x3 / Haha, true.
Toni42: Yes, yes he is. / Haha, I agree completely. / Indeed she is! Sometimes a bit too much of one, but cinnamon rolls are awesome so I don't mind. xD
Mooncake: You did, I typed a response I'm pretty sure. / (smirks)
CamronXTheXGamer: Haha, I'm pretty hyped up too. / Oh, really? / I'm not going to say anything, we're not even in Season 2 yet! xD
homeworkoverload: Nahh, its fine. (chuckles) / You may have to get in line for that, there seems to be quite a long one now. / No, because my Mac broke and I have to wait until I get a new one to record gameplay.
J.M.M.: ?
ShiningHopeBeast: You were quite correct about that. / Haha, yeees! It was so good. / Eric Stirpe said that the ending is only for now- in case they don't make a Season 3, this is still a good place to leave off. However, there are bits that you could probably draw on to create a Season 3 if they so desired. I do too. / Ahhh, you're Christian! Okay, that explains why you were uncomfortable with DanCat. I just thought you didn't like the ship xD
RapidSammi: Nahh is cool, friend. x3 / Toodles!
S4SH4L4SH4theGaMeR101: Me too haha
andie: He did not.
PuzzleMaster: Haha, I've played the last episode four times already. And I'm not making any comments on that.
Princess of Muffins: Because you are a very smart person. x3 / Thanks! / Merry late Christmas!
PoptartCrumbs: Unfortunately, yep.
CrystalTearsofFaith: Yeah, it was fantastic! / I hope so too. A lot of people are pretty divided on if MCSM could have a Season 3 or not, but it's definitely possible. / (chuckles)
Darkbeast Dend: I hope there will be! / Cake! (I am also being random)
Mikaza1498: Haha, I believe you. / Yeah, they've all posted it at this point (except for me because of my DARN COMPUTER), so it's cool. / Aww, glad you thought it was 'perfect'.
ZenSpider: He did not leave blue hair axe lady alone.
LazuliEmbassy: Thanks! / Oh, you'd better believe it (grins) / Can do! Thank you for enjoying and reading!
Rabbits rule: That's not your fault, don't apologize. / Kylik, don't be mean.
EndMyLife: (pats)
KillMePls: No to your username. And haha, I wouldn't say it's my OTP, but it is one of my primary ships now. x3
Welp, that's all for this time. See ya, so long, and g'bye!
x.X. A.L X.x
