Boy howdy it's been a while
I swear I'll write more often
But hey first time writing for MC:SM babeyyy :DDDD I've loved this fandom since I was a kid so it's honestly quite great to be writing for it now. So much so that I finished this in school.
We ball.
Anyway, I really hope you enjoy this, it's crossposted on Ao3 under the same username, you can imagine any Jesse you like because it's not that important to the plot, I'll give any triggers warnings when they come up, and feel free to give feedback :D
It's a cruel twist of fate that one of them had to die.
Maybe somewhere, there's a universe where both of them are happy, maybe they still live their simple life and they're happy with just that. Or maybe not.
Despite it all, Jesse can confirm they would die a thousand times over so that Rueben could live.
Who knew the ending could change so much from just one simple choice?
"It'll be alright buddy, the light will come on the second it gets dark!"
Reuben just butted their leg again upsettedly. Jesse sighed.
"I swear, Reuben, we won't be out for that long. Don't even worry about us," they reached down and stroked the thin, rough patch of fur between his ears, "we're going to smash that building competition, then we'll be back before midnight."
Olivia gave a hum of disagreement from where she was still tweaking with the redstone, "I don't know if we'll smash the competition…"
Jesse rolled their eyes, "We will, Olivia, you just have to have hope."
"Sure, Jesse. Sure."
They shook their head, "Anyway, things will be fine, Reuben, I promise. Nothing can get you from up here. We'll be back before you know it."
Finally, unwillingly, Reuben relented with a dismayed squeal. Jesse sighed again and fished a carrot from their chest to give to him. Immediately, he perked up again.
"There you go. I'll see you soon, buddy."
Jesse was inconsolable.
Not in the sobbing, hysterical sort of way, but in a quiet, lonely longing sort of way. Despite it all, they took charge in a better way than Lukas ever could, got on with it better than Lukas was, and split arguments and made decisions with a clear head and a firm hand. And people listened, sympathetic. Better than they treated him at times.
Still, he could tell the grief, the guilt was eating at them from the way they stared off into the distance, distracted, during inactive moments, or the way their voice was quieter and emptier than usual and the way they wouldn't sleep, instead gazing off into the night sky whenever they bedded down. It was the same in the treehouse, same at the temple, same in the cave.
For a little bit each night, Lukas would slip out of his bed when he was sure everyone else was asleep and they would sit together for a while in silence. Not a word spoken, barely a look exchanged. After a while he would leave again and go to bed, needing the rest, but there was something so pleasant and calming about silently stargazing together.
On that second night in the temple, waiting out the dark together, Jesse finally said a sentence to him. It had been a rough night with sorting out arguments (who'd have thought that two of the great heroes of the land could bicker so much?) and tensions were high, but now the night was quiet. At first, Lukas thought he was imagining it, but he turned quickly at the sound of their voice, surprised.
"I guess we both lost our best friends, didn't we?"
Lukas blinked, but Jesse merely remained staring ahead of them both. He turned back forwards and stared at his feet.
"I guess we did."
There was another long silence. Lukas didn't mind. Then,
"I'm glad you came with us, Lukas."
A little warm feeling blossomed in his chest and a small smile adorned his face.
"Me too."
"People could have escaped the Witherstorm! You saw it- there was plenty of opportunity for people to escape!"
"Yeah, Jesse, people! We don't know if Rueben could have!"
"Don't- don't be so negative! We can go out there and look!"
"Jesse, he's a pig, we'll be searching the land for hours! By the time we get even close, the whole world will have been destroyed!"
Jesse took a step back and surveyed the crowd, eyes wild, searching for any sort of agreement with them. Olivia and Axel hovered concernedly, having been the two to talk them down, as if waiting for them to bolt at any second. Petra shook her head. The Order watched, knowing it wasn't their place to step in.
Finally their eyes met Lukas', hoping for some kind of alliance. Gabriel's words are still in his head; his friends might still be out there. So could Rueben. But he knows deep down that Jesse can't come, because they have a job to do. He looked at his feet.
He could feel the resignation in the air as Jesse's shoulders drooped.
"Fine. I'll stay."
Guilty, Lukas headed back outside the cave and sat down on the ledge. He wasn't expecting to be joined by Jesse again, not after not giving his support, but still they came. There's a long silence. He expects it to stay again.
"You can still go, you know."
"Huh?"
They tucked their knees into their chest and hugged them, "I think you should still go to find your friends. Your other friends, I mean."
Lukas hesitated, then found his voice, "I can't just abandon you guys though, especially since you're not allowed to search for…"
A pause.
"No, don't worry about that," they looked at him, then, eyes locked in utter seriousness, "I can tell you want to. I do, too, but…" they shrugged.
He stared for a little while, "You're sure, Jesse? I really don't mind staying."
"I'm sure," they gave him a small smile that made Lukas' heart flutter, "we'll meet up again soon, I know. But, if you…if you do find him, bring him home for me, would you?"
Lukas couldn't help but smile back, "Of course."
"It's been great having you on the team Lukas, I mean it," they paused, pursing and unpursing their lips, "maybe, when we've fixed all of this…if we do…well, I'd like to see you around a little more."
There was a distinct warmth in his chest that Lukas can still remember clearly to this day, "I'm sure that can happen, Jesse."
They looked at each other for a long moment, at a peace despite the lights and dangers of the Witherstorm flashing in the background. Lukas opened his mouth to say something, when a cough startled them both.
"Ah- is this brooding space taken?"
They turned sharply to see Soren, hesitantly observing them both. Lukas blinked.
"Brooding space?"
"Yes," the architect bristled as he tried to defend himself, "a space where I can stand by myself and brood over current affairs."
There was a long, awkward pause. Eventually, Jesse shrugged.
"No, we were just heading out now."
"Fantastic!" Soren clapped his hands together, "I shall gratefully take it off your hands."
They stood up and swapped places, Jesse accompanying Lukas back to the horses.
"You'd think a man who'd just lost one of his long term friends would be so chipper, would you?" he asked, grinning a little.
Jesse rolled their eyes good-naturedly, "I don't understand anything about that man."
"Me neither. Take care, Jesse."
"You too."
They watched him go, waving from the mouth of the cave as he sped off on horseback.
It was still a little hard to believe that was their last full conversation together.
He found the rest of the Ocelots sheltered a decent length from the bombsite, injured, withersick and scared but alive. Lukas still thinks he must have looked very dashing showing up on horseback out of the pouring rain, but there were plenty of bigger, better things to worry about in that moment.
The shelter they had constructed was crude, a hut of all the materials they could find. They appeared to have headed in what they thought was the vague direction Endercon had been, to see if anything was left, though it was getting increasingly harder to tell where was where. Whole lands had been devastated by the Witherstorm. There were very few recognisable landmarks.
Maya and Gill had shrunk back behind Aiden the second the door had swung open, but it had only taken a moment for them all to recognise him.
"Lukas! You're alive!" Maya gasped, rushing forwards to embrace him, "We weren't sure you'd made it."
"Just about," he'd replied, hugging back, "I had to come find you guys- I've got so much to tell you about."
"There'll be plenty of time later," Aiden interrupted, shaking his head, "we can't stay here. We need to move out."
"You guys need healing first. Here, I brought some apples."
They were a couple of days old and he'd scavenged them from the branches in their first treehouse, but they would do. Everyone's eyes lit up at the sight and he passed them around, relieved that his friends were safe despite the danger of the situation. The apples seemed to provide the strength needed for them to feel ready again, and he briefed them quickly on the situation.
"Uh- the Order of the Losers actually managed to do that?" Gill asked, folding his arms. The other two nodded their incredulous agreement.
"Yeah. They're pretty cool actually," he shrugged, keeping his smile to himself, "we have a plan to meet up at Soren -you know, the guy from the Order of the Stone- 's fortress, and we need all the help we can get. You coming?"
"Hell yeah we are!"
Lukas grinned as he looked around the group. He thought back to Jesse's words.
I'd like to see you around more often.
Maybe that was more manageable than he thought.
They managed to tame some more horses that were hanging around outside, anxious, and saddled them up.
"So, heading straight there are we?" Aiden asked, feeling the reigns in his hands with a pleased look in his eyes. He may not admit it, but he did love horses.
Lukas paused, then shook his head, "Not yet. We've still got one more person to find."
The Witherstorm was a kind of hell Jesse wasn't quite prepared for.
It had been a rough landing that had made their head spin, and then after that the smell had got to them. It was an awful stench of rot and decay, nothing like what they had experienced before. Nothing Gabriel had said had prepared them for this. Still, they had to press on. Had to find the command block.
All around them were withered bodies of mobs and people alike. Terrified faces screaming even in their state pressed into them on all sides, clouding their mind and spreading a paralysing fear throughout their body. But no Rueben. Good.
They shouldn't be here.
But they had to press on.
Every now and then, the whole world would tilt, sending them tumbling down blocks towards the new floor. Their body was battered and their head splitting by the time they finally reached the command block.
Despite everything, Jesse could still feel its power pulsating through the Witherstorm, that eerie need to get closer to it, to give yourself to it in their mind, but they forced themself to focus and carry on. This was finally it- the end of the terror. They were about to save the world.
They readied the enchanted diamond pick in their hand and stepped up to the command block. They desperately wanted someone to be with them now, someone to back them up, but no one else could have come. This was their duty now.
They raised it high, and brought it down.
Crash
The world shakes and tilts and the rib-like structures around the command block snap into action to defend it. Jesse fell back, thudding against the ground. The armour they were wearing was surely battered by now, but it held up, absorbing most of the shock. Groaning, they sat up again just in time to see more tentacles burst from the walls.
They scrambled to their feet as one lashed out at them, dodging just in time. They hacked at it with the pickaxe as it came for them again and were more than pleased to watch it cleave it straight in two.
"Why didn't I always carry an enchanted weapon?"
No time to think about that- they needed to get to the command block again. Dodging more slicing tentacles, they sprinted their way back up to the podium and began to work their way through the ribs guarding it. The Witherstorm's body groaned and shuddered with rage at the attack, but they clung on nonetheless until they got through to it once more.
They raised the pick high and brought it down.
Crash
The shockwave was stronger this time, passing through Jesse and sending him flying. A bellow came from the beast as it began to tilt again, tentacles flailing everywhere and the eerie light inside flickering on and off. Thinking fast, they dug their pickaxe into the wall and it held, and they used that as a point to try and climb from before they could be flung to the bottom- or into that gaping hole that would surely lead them to their death.
Their climb was going well. They were sweating as they began to reach the top, but grinning from the exhiliration and realisation that they were just one swing away from destroying the command block. The end was in sight. They were about to make it.
The tentacle came from nowhere- wrapping itself around their waist and tugging them away from the wall so suddenly they had no time to react. A scream ripped itself from their throat as they wwere lashed backwards, then again as the pickaxe flew from their grip.
"No!" they cried, "NO!"
The pick flew through the air, glinting mockingly in the light, then dropped straight through the gaping hole in the ground.
Jesse screamed their frustrations again and again until their throat went hoarse, struggling against the tentacle wrapping them up, crushing them into it. Screaming as the realisation that they were stuck in here with no weapon set upon them. They tried to push it back, scratching and tugging and biting at the vice that theld them, but it was no use. They couldn't do a thing.
They had failed.
There were tears in their eyes, streaming down their face, and they felt themself go limp from the pressure and the resignation. They had failed everybody. It was over.
Unless…
The idea hit them and they lit up in relief as they just about reached their inventory and pulled out a potion of leaping, the one they had stolen from the witches' hut back on their journey to the Farlands. It was no use to them, but if- if this could reach someone, they could come up and rescue them and finish the job. It wasn't over- not yet.
Hope in their hands, they threw the potion into the hole and prayed.
The pickaxe clattered to the ground with a resounding sound, scaring Aiden from where he was braced, releasing fireworks into the air to distract the Witherstorm.
They had arrived later than they'd hoped, coming to Soren's fortress to find the Witherstorm already attacking it.
"Lukas! You made it!" Olivia cried from where she and Axel were still trying to build their distractions and rile up the endermen.
"I hope I'm not too late!" he called back, skidding over to join them, "But I did bring company."
Her eyes travelled to the Ocelots, and then, with a flash of joy, that stupid pig that they had found hiding in the undergrowth.
"Rueben!" she rushed forwards, delighted, and rubbed the pig behind the ears.
Axel turned, "Oh man, you actually found him! You really did go above and beyond, Lukas."
"Thanks, I just hope the distractions we brought are enough," he looked around, and Aiden was surprised at the worry in his voice, "where's Jesse?"
"They're already inside," Axel explained quickly, "they should be attacking the command block now."
He nodded, firmly, "Alright. Let's get to it then, Ocelots!"
That's where they had been; firing their distractions at the beast. Then came the mighty enchanted weapon that was supposed to save them all, and time had stood still.
Someone- maybe a couple people- had screamed or made some kind of sobbing sound. One might have been Lukas.
Then questions began to fly, "Where's Jesse?" "What's this doing here?" "Did they drop it?"
No one picked it up, instead gathering around it, faces horrified, voices panicked.
"What's going on?" "Something's wrong!" "How are they gonna destroy the command block without this?"
Aiden, looking around in a similar, somewhat concerned manner, had begun to step forwards when there was a clattering sound and something bounced along the ground, nudging his shoe. He looked down.
A potion of leaping.
The other Ocelots approached him as he picked it up, quizzically, and a realisation set in his mind. He voiced it before he could even think it through thoroughly.
"They're dead."
Heads turned to him. He'd said it- the one thing they were refraining from suggesting. The one theory they did not want to admit.
"This- it's their inventory dropping," he carried on, stepping forwards and presenting the potion of leaping, "they're dead."
"No!"
It was said by numerous people at once as they stumbled backs, words and hearts failing them.
"They can't be! They had Ivor's armour, and that pickaxe!" Olivia insisted, shaking her head desperatley.
"Yeah!" Axel gasped, "It- it's Jesse! They're strong enough to do anything!"
Even Rueben seemed to to understand, flattening his ears and shaking with a squeal.
But it was Lukas that Aiden kept his eyes on, watching as he backed away, his body trembling and his eyes wide. He said nothing even as he tried to open his mouth, and eventually he turned and ran.
"Lukas!" Olivia called, turning sharply, "Lukas- come back!"
Aiden's focus shifted as the Witherstorm continued to bellow and snarl above them, its beams drawing up more of their surroundings. He turned incredulously back to the mourning group. How could they be so stupid? They could mourn later- they needed to focus on the earth-eating monster about to kill them all!
A thought struck him, and he stared back down at the pickaxe. Those people- those losers- they weren't going to do anything. They weren't heroes- they'd failed.
And where they had always failed, the Ocelots, no, he had succeeded.
He flicked the cork off the potion, downed it in one, and then grabbed the pickaxe and leapt before anyone could say a word to him.
The inside of the Witherstorm was a lot worse than he'd been expecting, but Aiden wasn't sure what he'd been expecting.
It stank and it was full of dangers and the ground was shaking and there were tentacles lashing about everywhere and suddenly he wondered if this was a wise idea after all.
He dug the pickaxe into the edge as he landed to stabilise himself and stared around, temporarily awed at the sight. A collection of all sorts of blocks, all rotted and decayed into the same brownish purple colour that was slightly squishy beneath his feet. There was roaring and rumbling all around him, and he couldn't see the command block anywhere yet. He suddenly wished that he had had some of the armour that everyone else had been given. Would he even survive the way down?
Swallowing, he shook his head to clear the fear. He was better than Jesse and all those that were refusing to try. He could do this just fine by himself.
There was a slightly groan from above him so he looked up and was promptly delighted to see what he reckoned was this Command Block they were trying to destroy. Lukas had described it briefly on their way back to the Fortress, explained how it had caused a normal wither to spiral completely out of control, and the type of power it had. He'd given a brief physical description, but even if he hadn't, Aiden would have known straight away just by looking at the thing. It emanated an indescribable power.
Definitely a command block.
He braced and then jumped again, lurching higher and higher up the walls as he reached the command block. He'd never taken a potion of leaping before -he'd never needed to- and was quite surprised by just how high he could now jump. It made his stomach lurch a little bit, and his landings were slightly off, but it was quite thrilling.
But there was no time for that.
Just before he reached the command block, the Witherstorm turned, and suddenly Aiden was sent careening sideways. He cursed as he banged his arm, then his leg, then his head, but he was soon righted once more. He just hoped that didn't happen again- or worse, that he fell straight out of the monster. A death by fall damage would be nothing short of embarrassing. Plus, the world needed him now. It was finally his time to shine.
The command block was rooted into the wall ahead of him now. Tentacles around it began to lash out at him. While Aiden didn't have much experience in fighting, he found it fairly straight forwards to jump over the tentacles and knock those that he couldn't avoid away with the enchanted pickaxe. Lukas hadn't told him much about that, but he'd gathered fairly quickly that it was powerful. Powerful enough to destroy that thing.
The last leap the potion had carried him over the final gap and he clung onto the flailing tentacles around the Command Block as he readied his pick.
Grinning to himself, he raised it as high as he could and brought it down with all his might.
CRASH
There was a blinding light followed by a huge rumble and a shockwave that sent Aiden flying. He thudded painfully into the blocks around as cracks and groans sounded from all around, as well as the dying screech of the Witherstorm. He blinked opened his eyes and cleared his spinning vision, to register that the inside of the beast was breaking apart and beginning to fall to the ground. He got up, clutching the damaged pickaxe to his chest and began to search for a way out when he was away of another person's cry. He looked around, alarmed. Was it someone on the ground? Had the petrified people come back to life?
Then, his gaze settled on a figure just to his right, lying on their front and trying to push themself into a sitting position, groaning and clutching their head. Aiden didn't have to look for long to recognise Jesse, hunched over and bloodied. He noticed quickly that they seemed to have lost the use of their legs, their spine likely damaged in some way.
His eyes narrowed. So they weren't dead. What had happened?
He took a few steps towards them slowly, and they looked up, eyes bleary.
"Lukas…no, Aiden?" they asked, voice hoarse, "Is that you?"
He didn't answer, instead stepping closer.
"How did you…" their eyes lit up, "ah- you got the potion! I didn't think…" they shook their head, "nevermind- I suppose you were better than I gave you credit for."
They smiled. Aiden didn't.
This…pathetic creature slumped before him had failed. They had always failed because he had always known that he was better than them. And now they were going to take his fame as the Witherstorm destroyer all because they had failed and then dropped a stupid potion for someone to find.
They looked around, "You- you did it! We won!"
"So I did," he replied, voice stern.
"Yeah, now, urgh- mind helping me up? I've only got a couple hearts left…"
He stopped in front of them now, and crouched down. Their eyes met his, then narrowed confusedly.
"You know, Jesse…" he began, "it's a real shame…"
"What is?" they asked, pulling themself up a bit more. They seemed to notice their paralysis now, and glanced about themself, anxious.
"The fact that you were already dead when I got up here."
Eyes locked.
Aiden raised the pick high and brought it down a final time.
Crunch
I see a song of past romance
I see the sacrifice of man
I see portrayals of betrayal and a brother's final stand
I see you on the brink of death
I see you draw your final breath
I see a man who gets to make it home alive
But it's no longer you
