Jesse skidded to a halt just before she started over the bridge, because blocking her path– probably all from the chicken machine they'd wrecked earlier, she thought a little ruefully– was a small flock of chickens. "Out of my way, you chickens!" she scolded, acutely aware that Reuben and the others were already halfway across the bridge.

A smashing noise exploded behind her, the sound of glass shattering and crumbling practically sending a shockwave through the area. Automatically, Jesse turned to see what the sound was–

She stifled a hysterical shriek. The Wither had grown bigger. Blacker than a starless night sky, with writhing tentacles to boot, the Wither rose through what had used to be the ceiling of the keynote, indigo eye now about Jesse's size. Each tooth was easily the size of a block, and there was now a foul perfume wafting through the air– something sickly sweet and sour and bitter, all at once.

To add to the nightmare, two additional heads lifted, indigo eyes flickering to life as they looked around, releasing a screeching, dissonant roar.

Two more of the beams that had sucked Gabriel up shot into the crowd, people in the screaming crowd ahead of her getting sucked up into the Wither as if they were blocks.

Jesse didn't stick around to check what happened when they reached the Wither– no, not the Wither. This wasn't a Wither anymore. It looked a little like a Wither, but it was definitely not a Wither. The monster, then. – the monster, but instead whirled around and charged past the chickens, following the crowd as they tried to flee the monster.

She'd made it exactly halfway across the bridge when a purple light surrounded her. She was confused– until she felt her feet lifting off of the bridge. Letting out a startled yelp, she quickly revolved in the air and seized ahold of the bridge– and realized that the section of bridge she'd been on was starting to lift into the air as well, the stone letting out strange cracking sounds as it was broken off of the rest of the bridge.

Her blood pressure had to be through the roof right now, with how hard her glass heart was pumping away in her chest.

"Hey– guys!" Jesse screamed, green eyes flickering over the crowd in search of the others, but there was nobody there. She couldn't spot Lukas's blonde hair and ocelot on the back of his jacket, she couldn't spot a little pink pig, she couldn't see Petra's familiar, striped bandana, she couldn't even see Axel's huge figure. "I'm up here!" she yelled, hoping beyond hope they could hear her. "Someone help me!"

There was no reply amidst the screams and the chaos– except that a chicken that had been caught in the beam fluttered out and landed without any problem, clucking contentedly.

Jesse stared at the chicken, before her eyes hardened a little.

If nobody was going to come save her, she supposed she'd have to save herself.

Reaching out with one hand, aware that she was putting herself in danger with releasing one point of anchoring herself to this piece of bridge, she scrabbled at the stones that made up the bridge, searching for some sort of handhold–

She found one. Fingers digging into the small crack between stones, wincing a little as the rough stones pinched and scraped her fingers a little, she released her other hand and reached out again. Slowly, but surely, she began inching forward, pulling her slowly forward towards the edge of the tractor beam as the piece of bridge rose higher and higher.

Faster.

She reached the other end of the bridge, the end of the tractor beam only inches away now.

C'mon.

Jesse's arms pushed forward desperately, and she suddenly found herself toppling forward, gravity suddenly deciding to kick back in. Hastily, Jesse wrapped her arms around her chest protectively, feeling the glass heart pound away against her chest and her arms as she tucked her head.

She landed hard on her back, all the air in her lungs being flattened out of her lungs in a heartbeat– and trust me, with her arms pressing her heart to her chest, she could count– before the momentum launched her into a flip, and she landed flat on her stomach, arms stinging. It felt like the stone had scraped them a little.

Jesse lay there for a moment, appreciating the fact that she was alive but not really appreciating the fact that most of her body felt like it was in pain, lungs desperately grasping for air–

They finally remembered how to work again, and Jesse found herself able to inhale properly. Scrambling to her feet, she sprinted forwards, dodging the people that were racing around like panicked, headless chickens– before spotting Lukas. Hastily leaping over a small flock of chickens that were blocking the way, she sprinted right for him. "Lukas!" she shouted.

The blonde whirled around, searching for the source of the voice, and ran up to Jesse, face pale. "Holy crap!" he exclaimed, "oh man, if you were still in that basement..."

Jesse swallowed nervously at the idea of that.

She might've still been in the basement if Ivor hadn't let her go.

"I'm glad you're okay." Lukas gave her a warm grin, reaching out and squeezing her shoulder gently.

The black-haired girl didn't even have time to have a proper reaction to that when she heard a shout from nearby. "Jesse!"

Both of them turned, Lukas's hand practically jumping off of Jesse's shoulder as if she was a hot potato, scanning the crowd and spotting Petra, Axel, Olivia, and Reuben taking shelter under a tent roof. The blonde and the black-haired girl were quick to run for them, but not a second after Jesse ducked under the tent herself, the tent gave way as it was pulled up into the air, the posts holding it up cracking as they were wrenched out of the ground or broken apart. Purple light flooded the area.

They all screamed and scattered.

"Wait– wait! We have to stay together!" Jesse shouted, to no avail as they all fled.

"Jesse!"

Jesse turned again to see Petra practically floundering in the air, horror written across the redhead's face as she began to float towards the Witherstorm, a tractor beam steadily pulling her up. "Help me!"

Jesse pounced and seized ahold of Petra's hand, her free hand lashing out behind her and seizing ahold of one of the broken-off posts that had been supporting the tent roof they'd just been under, hoping against hope that the tractor beam would move away a moment later and they'd be fine.

Except, of course, it didn't. It seemed determined to eat them both up.

The shorter girl's feet began to float off of the floor, and the post began to tremble from Jesse's weight and the pull of the tractor beam. "It's breaking!" Jesse yelled, aware that Petra was desperately clinging to her hand like her life depended on it.

Which, of course, it did.

The post, with a crunching sound, broke, and Jesse let out a terrified scream. Petra, behind her, was now squeezing her hand so far that she was pretty sure that it was going to break.

A hand lashed out and seized ahold of Jesse's foot before she could rise too far up, Gabriel's face grim as he braced his feet to keep them all from floating into the air and, undoubtedly, to their deaths.

The tractor beam finally decided to move away, and the three of them tumbled to the to ground with yelps of pain. Olivia, Axel, Lukas, and Reuben, apparently having realized that they were missing, raced up to them, all of their eyes wide with fear.

"Do we have everyone?" Jesse asked shakily, heart going at the speed of a rabbit's, which was pretty fast, as she did the quickest headcount of all time. Gabriel began to run in a separate direction, although he seemed to be waiting for them.

"We must set out for my fortress," Gabriel shouted over his shoulder, "we'll be better protected there!"

Instantly, the others started running after him, objects being pulled apart and flying up into the storm above them. Jesse didn't dare look up again– that one glimpse of the monster, with those giant indigo eyes and animalistic skulls and dozens of writhing tentacles, was enough to give her nightmares. She didn't need more.

"Thanks for that just now," Petra panted to Jesse, slowing down a little so that she could keep pace with the shorter girl.

"Yeah, well, now we're even–" Jesse cut herself off as she gasped, the storm– the monster– the Wither– the Witherstorm roared loudly, beginning to drift after the crowd. And while that does not sound threatening, when there's a monstrous Wither about the size of a school floating above your heads and growing bigger by the second, you don't want that approaching you in any way, shape, or form.

"INCOMING!" Petra tackled Jesse to the side, a flaming skull shooting out and detonating, leaving a gaping crater in the ground.

Petra lunged to her feet, yanking Jesse with her, and continued racing forward. Jesse increased her speed the best she could, swerving and ducking to avoid the burning skulls practically raining down like a meteor shower. A few of the holes in the ground were too deep or big, and she just leaped over them to save time.

A group of people ran past screaming, a tractor beam flickering to life and chasing them. Jesse skittered to the left to avoid it, still sprinting for the gate of Endercon. Ahead of her, she could see that the redhead and her little pig were already out.

And now the gate was coming down.

Her glass heart went into overdrive– if it hadn't already been in overdrive before this, it definitely was now– and before she could think about it, she put on a burst of speed, ducking down into a roll in the nick of time as the gate slammed shut just behind her. In fact, it was so close that she heard a ripping sound through all the chaos and glanced down to see that the leg of her overalls now had a sizable tear in it.

Jesse continued running after the others, her lungs dragging in air, her heart pounding away unsteadily as Gabriel yelled, from where he was up ahead, "Stick together, everyone! We'll be safe as soon as we get to my temple!"

Jesse glanced over her shoulder to check the Witherstorm's progress– and screamed as it started shooting more of the flaming skulls out of its mouths.

Fire.

The skulls hit the trees and set them ablaze, which spread and set even more trees on fire. The Witherstorm continued spitting out fiery skulls, now setting grass, trees, anything that was flammable on fire. It was as if they were running through a forest of fire.

Terror was now making Jesse's heart skip every other beat, so it now felt like her heart was a malfunctioning piston. As it was, it was enough to pump adrenaline through her body and scream at every logical part of her brain– GET MOVING, STUPID!

Jesse swerved around a huge hole that had been created by the Witherstorm, before coming across another one literally milliseconds after. Without thinking, she launched herself into the air over the hole, landing in a roll and continuing her sprint. She also continually swerved around any small fires that were nearby, heat tingling against her skin as the crackling, hissing pops of the fire seemed to whisper threats to her.

"Everyone, keep going!" Gabriel yelled over the screaming up ahead, making Jesse lift her head to realize that there was a split in the path up ahead, "we'll meet up on the other side!"

If I'm still alive on the other side, Jesse thought, slightly hysterically.

Jesse swerved to the right, where she saw Axel, Reuben, and Olivia sprinting through the forest. Tractor beams were roving across the forest floor, searching for people to swallow up. Up ahead, Axel barely managed to dodge away from one in the nick of time.

Jesse tore her eyes from Axel– and immediately felt her breath freeze in her lungs. If her heart had been skipping every other beat before, it had now just skipped three in a row.

There was a wall of fire in front of her.

There was a literal wall, going up to her waist, of pure flame, extending about fifty feet to the left and the right. She could see tongues of flame slowly stretch towards her, as if trying to grab ahold of her– or maybe that was just her imagination. She could feel the heat hitting her like a physical slap to the face, even from back here, and she wanted to skid to a stop, but she couldn't– her heart was screaming stop, and every other part of her was saying run and jump. Unfortunately for her now-skipping heart, her body was obeying the run and jump command.

I'm going to die.

No you won't.

It's fire, if I so much as bump into it a little I'm going to catch on fire and then I'm going to burn to death

If you don't jump over it, you will definitely die via the giant monster with THREE HEADS behind you.

It was too late– she was almost on the wall of flames. She either had to decide whether to stop in her tracks and get killed by the monster behind her, or leap over the fire and risk dying via– well, you know– fire.

It took Jesse a second to decide.

She tensed her knees and leaped into the air, launching herself above the wall of flames, please make it, please make it, please make it

Her feet slammed solidly into the ground, sending a little jolt up her spine as she stumbled forward a few steps. But besides the initial shock up her spine from landing so solidly... nothing. No pain, no burning feeling. Nothing.

Hardly believing her luck, Jesse bolted forwards, relieved to see that the path had reconverged, flaming trees still surrounding them on every side with most everybody still there. (She couldn't be entirely sure. She didn't remember how many people there'd been initially.) At least all of her friends were still there, although Jesse was starting to fall behind. What with the hesitation at the fire and the fact that she was so darn short, she was running out of breath and ability to run.

"The temple is just up ahead!" Gabriel shouted, voice cutting through all the chaos again, "follow me!"

Jesse managed to get past the last burning tree. Glancing to the side and shooting the tree a little sigh of relief, she suddenly spotted a writhing black tentacle squirming around in the air– accompanied by several more. One made a swipe for her, but the girl launched herself sideways and avoided it by a hair's breadth– she quickly swerved the other direction to avoid yet another one.

Ahead of her, Axel, Olivia, Lukas, and Petra were still running at full tilt towards the temple, although Jesse was unfortunately lagging behind a bit now.

To emphasize the unfortunate factor, a giant tentacle thrashed out of the air and smashed into the ground in front of her, creating another obstacle that was about waist-high.

The short girl simply vaulted over this, barely clearing it without tripping, and simply kept running forward, catching up with Gabriel, who'd slowed to a stop to wait for Jesse, and bolted up the steps. "Hurry, inside!" Gabriel urged her, the girl entering the temple without another word. He followed her, leading her down a small flight of stairs, where the others were waiting, white-faced. Reuben let out a relieved little oink at the sight of the black-haired girl.

"The inner chamber's made entirely of obsidian," Gabriel announced, flipping a lever and allowing the door to the inner chamber to slide open, "we should be untouchable in there." Inside the inner chamber, there was a solitary, unlit ring of obsidian blocks standing on a pedestal.

A Nether portal.

Before Jesse's heart could freeze up again, purple light flooded the room. Jesse let out a strangled scream and raced into the room, the others hot on her heels as they burst into the room. Gabriel followed, before drawing another diamond sword and fending a tentacle off, keeping it from chasing the others. "Hurry– if you can get through the portal, you'll be safe," he instructed them.

I won't, Jesse thought dazedly.

The five of them– no, six of them, Reuben was still at her feet– raced up the steps to the portal, Axel being the first to charge through.

But he didn't end up in the Nether– just on the other side of the platform. "Uhh, something's wrong here!" he exclaimed, experimentally testing the air with his hand.

"It's not lit!" Olivia exclaimed.

Jesse reached into her pockets and pulled out the flint and steel, trying to hide the fact that her hands were shaking. Now was not the time to worry that she was going to catch on fire– everyone would die if she didn't do this.

Extending her arms as far as she could away from her body, into the center of the portal, she clicked them together sharply. Sparks flew, and then suddenly the center of the portal was glowing bright purple.

Jesse was pretty sure she was using up every single ounce of luck that was allotted to her for the month. Heck, she might be using up every bit of luck that was allotted to her for her entire life.

Well, whatever the case was, she wasn't going to argue.


A/N: Whoooof, we're headed to the Nether.

... yay xD

Finally done with what I consider the boring part! Be prepared for a good amount of twists to be launched at you readers... uh... soon. xD

Responses to reviews!

LunarTheMooncake: Lol xD

TheAmberShadow: (shrugs) He might've just been threatening her. I dunno. / You'll see. / (pats) / (shrugs) / Probably something else would've happened– that universe just insists on putting Jesse in the most danger or separating them from their friends xD / Couldn't have said it better. Jesse probably knows that but is just panicked. / :3

And that's it x3

x.X. A.L. X.x