[Jesse's POV]
(When I and Reuben went inside, everyone else had already made themselves comfortable in our small cave.)
(Axel and Olivia are looking after Petra in one corner of the room.)
(Lukas is leaning on a nearby wall, and Soren and Ellegaard are trying to get Gabriel back to his senses.)
(Reuben also found a place and is playing with the horses near the entrance.)
(Even though we finally caught a break, no one seemed to be able to rest properly, which I understand why but being the unofficial 'leader'.)
(I at least wanted to try and make everyone feel a little bit better.)
(I approach Gabriel's group.)
Soren: "Gabriel! It really is you!"
Ellegaard: "Oh! I knew if anybody could outrun death, it would be you!"
Gabriel: "What? Who are you? Do I know you?"
Ellegaard: "It's me! Ellegaard! Come on!"
(Gabriel nervously backed away.)
Soren: "Old friend, don't you recognize us? I'm Soren, your friend! Don't you remember? We've known each other for such a long time!"
Jesse: "Just give him some space for now. He may still come out of it."
Soren: "B-But why? What happened to him to act this way?"
Jesse: "I'm not really sure myself; the wither storm gave him some type of amnesia; it's like he can't remember anything before he came back. Actually, it was everyone who got eaten by the storm that started acting like that."
(Soren sighs.)
Soren: "What a terrible turn of events."
(I turn back to Gabriel.)
Jesse: "Hey, how are you feeling?"
Gabriel: "I... I'm afraid I don't feel much like myself at the moment. You said my name is Gabriel, but for some reason, I can't remember that. All my memories feel so... foggy."
Jesse: "Well, if it's giving you a headache, then you should stop thinking too hard about it."
Gabriel: "That's not what's worrying me, though. What bothers me is the fact that I myself have no idea who I am! And then I have these 2 people, who I don't know, who keep insisting I'm their best friend and 'reminding' me of completely foreign memories! It's like they're talking as if they mistook me for another person."
Ellegaard: "Gabriel..."
Gabriel: "I-I don't know what to do... I don't know how to feel about when you expect me to be this person I don't know."
Jesse: "Gabriel, I think you should just rest for a while."
Gabriel: "But it's hard to rest when you're occupied with thoughts like mine."
Jesse: "Well, what else am I supposed to do?!"
Gabriel: "You! What was your name?"
Jesse: "Um, Jesse?"
Gabriel: "Jesse! You're the one who rescued me. Tell me, please, what is going on? What happened to me before you rescued me?"
Jesse: "Well, as far as I know, you were caught and eaten by this Wither Storm, you know, that thing we just escaped from."
Gabriel: "How long was I in there?"
(Gabriel inquired.)
Jesse: "You were trapped for quite a while. Around 3 days or so? Long enough that it did this to you."
(Gabriel looked at me with frightened and exhausted eyes.)
Gabriel: "It felt like an eternity."
(The cave went silent for a short while until Petra suddenly fell ill again.)
Petra: "W-Whoa!"
(Axel and Olivia caught her before she fell to the ground.)
Axel: "Easy, easy. We got you."
Olivia: "What happened, Petra?"
Petra: "I suddenly felt really dizzy."
Axel: "I hope I'm not running out of potions..."
(Axel pulls one out and hands it to her.)
(From Axel's expression, it was obvious that there wasn't a lot left.)
(I walked over to the group to check on them.)
(Lukas, meanwhile, came to take a look as well.)
Jesse: "You feeling any better?"
Petra: "'Better' is relative. If I just sit here and don't move or breathe, it's almost bearable."
Axel: "Man, if it wasn't for Ivor, she wouldn't even be like this!"
Olivia: "No kidding."
(Olivia scoffs.)
Petra: "That's not exactly true. Ivor built the Wither, sure, but he couldn't have done it without that skull I gave him. If I'd just taken a second to think about it... all I cared about was getting that stupid diamond..."
Lukas: "Don't say that; you didn't know it would come to this. It was a chain of unfortunate events."
Petra: "But without my help, that chain of events wouldn't even have started...!"
Jesse: "That wouldn't mean Ivor would just go home and forget this because one of his steps in his plan failed! But from what I recall, Ivor already had 2 skulls ready. If it weren't for that deal that went wrong, he could've just gotten that third skull another way, and in that scenario, we wouldn't even know that was happening. In other words, it could've ended worse. That chain of unfortunate events would have been fortunate in comparison to how it could've ended. In our situation, we can at least stop it; who knows what would've happened in that scenario?"
Axel: "Yeah... Jesse's got a point. If someone here is at fault, then it's the person who used you, Ivor!"
Olivia: "I know it's useless to bring this up now, but to add to that chain of unfortunate events, if Axel didn't steal that potion, this also could've been avoided."
Axel: "Ey! I didn't know it would come to this either! How come you punish me for that but forgive Petra!?"
Olivia: "Hey! I didn't say anything along those lines! I just thought to bring it up while we're on this topic! Look, it happened to both you and Petra. It was
tragic, and things happened. A lot of us did things we weren't supposed to, and it's kinda useless to debate them right now. The important thing is that we acknowledged our mistake and moved on, okay?"
Axel: "Fine... I guess..."
Lukas: "She's got a point. Though I never really liked to play the blame game. In the end, not even Ivor wanted it to end up like this. So whose fault was it really that it ended like this? I'd say no one, because, as Olivia pointed out, debating it at this point is kind of pointless."
Jesse: "Well, technically, you could blame the Wither Storm since it's currently the thing trying to eat the world. But it's not like it cares if we blame it or not since its only goal is to eat everything."
Petra: "Well, still, no matter who we blame now..."
(Petra stands up again.)
Petra: "It's still our job to take down that thing, and I'm gonna do everything I can to make this right!"
Olivia: "Petra, I know this isn't easy to hear, but you're too sick to be going anywhere!"
Petra: "I'm not that sick..."
Axel: "I think it's better that you just rest in this cave for a while. I mean, it's safe, defensible-"
Petra: "If I say I'm fine, then I'm... "cough cough"...fine!"
Olivia: "Petra! You should know way better than anyone else where your limits are! I don't want you to just suddenly collapse and never wake up again! Have you forgotten what happened when the End flooded?!"
(Even now, for some reason, Petra is still stubborn about this.)
(I don't really want to interfere with someone else's business, but Petra will literally wither away if this continues!)
(Petra has always been the one who has been independent and able to survive on her own.)
(I, Olivia, Axel, and Reuben have always lived together for as long as I can remember.)
(Even Lukas lived with his Ocelot crew.)
(No matter what, we had our friend group that we always depended on.)
(Not to mention that we barely knew anyone outside of our immediate circle.)
(Because we were rather poor and didn't really have the courage or mental strength to leave that group, we always stuck together.)
(But Petra, on the other hand, was different.)
(She didn't really have a 'home'.)
(She lived life like it was an adventure. She never showed any weakness.)
(When someone had a problem, it was always us who went to her for help.)
(You could almost say she was a small celebrity, and a lot of people liked her.)
(Axel even has a small obsession with her.)
(She was strong and independent, and I respect her for that.)
(But now, that personality has kind of become her weakness.)
(Her strong determination is causing her to push herself to the extreme.)
(Man, why does it always have to be more complicated than it should be? Well, whatever happens.)
(I want to do what I think is right, which is to make Petra see this flaw.)
Jesse: "You staying here is the right move. You'll never get better if you keep
pushing yourself!"
Petra: "But I want to be there for you guys!"
Axel: "I know you do, and you will."
Olivia: "It's the right call, Petra."
(Petra was silent for a while and thought for a long time.)
Petra: "Maybe... maybe you're right."
Lukas: "I hope so."
Petra: "But you better kick that Storm's ass in my place!"
Jesse: "Oh, we will; for the fate of this world, that's our job, right?"
Axel: "We didn't all make it back, though."
(Right... Magnus... And to make matters worse, I'm the one who's wearing it right now.)
Jesse: "I can't help but blame myself for this... After all, I was the one who took Magnus's armour."
Lukas: "But you couldn't have known what was going to happen! Think back to our conversation."
Ellegaard: "He's right. You can't blame yourself, Jesse!"
(Ellegaard unexpectedly bursts into the conversation.)
Ellegaard: "Well, I'm surprised he lasted as long as he did."
Axel: "Why are you so cold to Magnus anyway?"
Ellegaard: "Don't look at me! Magnus was always the daredevil type. If I told you what kind of things he did, you would know how often he was living on the edge."
(Ellegaard sits down.)
Ellegaard: "I didn't have the guts to tell this before, but, deep in my heart, I really did want to make up for our whole rivalry, but I never had the chance. and now he's gone."
Olivia: "I hate to ask, but what even happened between you two?"
Ellegaard: "Well, it was around I joined the order. From how Magnus acted, I knew right away that we wouldn't be the ones to become the bestest of friends. He was all about his griefer lifestyle, whereas I just wanted to show off my inventions to the world. I still really tried to get along with him, but we were polar opposites on our interests and literally everything else. I couldn't help it, but it's like I always felt annoyed when he was in the picture."
Soren: "Don't mention this kind of stuff now."
Ellegaard: "I know, I know, but I just want to get this off my chest when I have the chance to."
(Soren looks away dejected.)
Ellegaard: "The final nail in the coffin came one day when I was working on a large project. I was building a big automated system that, when completed, would do all the item sorting and collect resources from other automated farms. It was a dream come true to never have to manually do anything anymore! That was still early on, when the Order had only been together for a year, and I didn't have anywhere near the skills I have now. The machine required A LOT OF REDSTONE. There wasn't any other project before this that was this size. To put it simply, I wasted a lot of time building that. Then, during the middle of the day while I was busy, Magnus came and asked me to do one of his 'activities' together. I never liked them to begin with, so I declined, but he insisted. When I kept saying no, he walked away, annoyed. And what happened next still makes my blood boil. I know we both didn't act very 'mature' at that time, but Magnus thought it was a good idea to prank me. He climbed on top of the machine and placed one of his TNTs there and acted like he was gonna blow it up. Panicked, I went up there to confront him; he had already grabbed Flint & Steel out of his inventory. Magnus taunted me and motioned his arm as if he was about to light it. I lost my ability to think rationally for a second and only thought of how to stop the TNT from exploding. I poured water on it to stop the TNT from exploding and only realized my mistake a split second later. The water started leaking into the machine and destroyed everything. My days of work, gone, down the drain. I lost my cool and respect for him right there. The worst thing was that Magnus didn't even light it; he just wanted to scare me with it. He apologized, but with what I had gone through, I didn't accept it. It was the first time I became so angry, I chased Magnus away and threatened him not to come near me again. The story could have ended there, but I couldn't let it go at the time, so I decided to exact my revenge by blowing up his TNT collection later that day, wasting all of his TNT as well as some of his belongings. We never interacted friendily again after that, no matter what Gabriel and Soren tried. After the Order separated, the situation calmed down a little, and I kinda started feeling bad about it. But every time we met, just seeing his face reminded me of these times, and my anger always got the best of me. He must've felt the same way. It wasn't until now that I realized that. Even in Soren's Fortress when we managed to find each other, we only cooperated because we were truly lost and didn't know where to go. That's when we by chance found a way out, and that's where we started fighting the mobs in that area before you guys came with the Formidi-Bomb."
Everyone: "...."
(Everyone takes a moment to take in Ellegaard's story.)
(Just like with the Wither Storm, it was another unfortunate chain of events that led to this hatred.)
(It really is weird, right? It's never just one bad thing; it's always a dozen of them, one after the other.)
(All I can say is that it stinks that that
ended up the way it did.)
Soren: "ARGH! Being emotional is getting us nowhere!"
(Soren's sudden shout made everyone jump.)
Soren: "I don't care what happened years ago; what I wanna know is, what happened out there today?! Why is that THING still ALIVE!?!"
Jesse: "The Formidi-Bomb just wasn't strong enough, I guess. It ripped the Wither Storm apart, but it didn't make a dent in the command block."
Soren: "So the command block is still out there? Oh, great."
Jesse: "Look, our plan didn't work, so we obviously need a new one. The question is, what do we do?"
(Soren groans aggressively.)
Soren: "Why are you asking me?"
Jesse: "Cause you're the one with the impossible objects?"
Soren: "Am I expected to know every last thing in the universe?!"
(Soren lets out a sigh before suddenly storming out of the cave.)
Soren: "I need a moment to think."
Lukas: "Wait, Soren, where are you going?"
(Soren doesn't respond and disappears from our view.)
Gabriel: "Is he always like this?"
Ellegaard: "You have no idea."
(*sigh* Why can't we have even just one sane member of the Order?)
Gabriel: "That jacket. I recognize it!"
(Huh? Gabriel suddenly said something.)
Lukas: "Are you talking about me?"
(Gabriel takes a closer look to confirm his statement.)
Gabriel: "Yes! That's the same one!"
Jesse: "What are you going on about? Lukas always wears that jacket."
Gabriel: "No, there were other people wearing that very same jacket when I was thrown from that monster!"
Lukas: "W-What?!"
Jesse: "Wait... are you saying?"
(Before I can ask him again, Gabriel groans from a headache and is forced to sit down again.)
Gabriel: "It hurts just to think about."
Ellegaard: "Just put it out of your mind."
(Ellegaard accompanies him back to the corner.)
(Meanwhile, Lukas looks at me with a shocked expression.)
Lukas: "Jesse, if what Gabriel said is true... I mean, do you think? I thought for sure they were gone, but... if they were just trapped in the Wither Storm... then..."
(Right, it only makes sense.)
Jesse: "Lukas, your friends can still be out there!"
Lukas: "I know! Then... that means I have to go after them!"
(Lukas storms to the chest where we all stored our stuff..)
Jesse: "Wait, what are you doing?"
Lukas: "You said it yourself - if they're alive, then I have to go after them! They might need me, Jesse."
Jesse: "Wait, wait, wait; you can't just up and leave, Lukas. You're part of our team!"
Lukas: "And you saying that just reminds me that I left my team."
Jesse: "Lukas..."
(The suddenness of Lukas's decision caught me off guard.)
(I never thought Lukas would suddenly decide to leave like that, and it made me genuinely nervous that he would actually leave us.)
Lukas: "Look, you and me, we've made a pretty good team so far. I'd even call us friends. So I hope you'll understand why I need to go help my old friends."
(Lukas... friends... I couldn't help but feel touched by that.)
(Outside of my friend group, you are the first person to genuinely call me a friend.)
(Even if it's just being friends, it made me... really happy.)
Jesse: "I must say... I'm flattered. I don't have a lot of friends or people I can rely on."
Lukas: "Hm? What are you trying to say?"
(Lukas looks at me, slightly perplexed. Well, I had to say it in a roundabout way because saying it directly would have been too embarrassing.)
Jesse: "When I look back, I didn't really think it would eventually come this way, but I'm grateful that we were able to get along. I appreciate that you treated me nicely. It's not common that I get to meet someone like you."
Lukas: "Jesse... it's not that big of a deal, is it? It was the same with you. Back at that makeshift treehouse, when Axel didn't treat me really nicely, you and Olivia stood up for me. I was actually worried that our rivalry would get in the way. The fact that you treated me as a part of the team, I think I should thank you for that. I'm grateful that you pulled me along up until this point. Then, you'll understand my intentions too, right?"
(I tap his shoulder with my hand.)
(This might sound selfish to me, but I don't want him to go, not after this.)
(I saw how destructive the Wither Storm is, and I don't want to endanger Lukas like that.)
(I understand what he wants to do and would respect his decision, but the last thing I want is to lose him to the Wither Storm!)
(The last thing I want is to make heartbreaking decisions like this! I have to make the right choice now before it's too late!)
(What should I choose?)
[To be continued...]