"Jesse," I groan as someone shakes me, heavy eyelids peeling open. "Come on Jesse, wake up."

I swat at the person, blinking awake and lifting my body up. Yawning, I rub my face. Sleep hanging on tight to me, refusing to let me wake up properly. Although if only I could fall asleep again. It felt like I was only asleep for a few seconds.

Reuben stretches beside me, oinking softly for me to get a move on. I hoist myself to my feet, the muscles in my legs stiff and bitter at me for using them again. I shouldn't be surprised that only a few hours of rest didn't fully recover them, but it's a bit disappointing. I just don't feel like I rested at all.

The others have already made their way out of the dirt hut, and it hits me. We're going to be looking for the temple, which we then somehow lead us to the Order. With that thing Gabriel gave me, which I haven't even properly looked at yet.

Yawning again, I walk out. Immediately hissing lightly as the sun pierces my eyes. I blink, squinting and raising my arm up to try and shield myself. I won't claim to be the greatest morning person there is, but the sun has never disturbed me this much.

"Hey look!" Olivia points to the side, where a stone path lays out. "That must lead to the temple."

Trying to wake myself up, we head to it. Whispers of last night's horrors shifting through my head. The Wither Storm, the forest on fire as buildings are uprooted, Gabriel in the tractor beam, the broken portal keeping Petra in that mess and us in the Nether, the hot sweltering Nether, last night's argument-

A light ping comes from my left arm, and of course, there's that with the cold dread of looming doom. How could I forget?

I shake my head, seeing myself falling behind. I pick up my pace, just in time to spot Axel glaring at Lukas and walking ahead of him. I sigh, especially when Lukas stops walking altogether, head hanging down.

"Hey, uh, you okay?" I turn to him properly, letting Axel and Olivia go up ahead.

He shrugs, not looking every okay at all. "It was a rough night."

"Yeah, I'm really sorry about that." I sheepishly scratch my neck as I attempt to apologize for Axel. "Axel lets his heart speak for him, and with everything that happened.... Honestly, I'm just glad you're okay."

Lukas smiles, lifting his head at me. "Thanks for being so cool about it, I really didn't want to spend all night in the rain."

"Rain?" I blink, confusion scrunching up my face. "When did it rain last night?"

He chuckles, beginning to walk again. "Man, you really were knocked out last night weren't you? It began to rain not even a minute after you kept me from leaving."

I smile too, trying not to let him see the weight that just pressed onto my shoulders. "Like you said, it was a rough night. I don't even-"

"Hey!" Olivia's shout interrupts me, and I see she's up on a small hill pointing forward. "The temple, it's right over there!"

"Well, what are we waiting for?" I head in that direction, loosening up my left shoulder. That limb in particular is having a hard time waking up. "Let's get a closer look."

Which turns out to be really helpful when a wall of vines stands before us. With only a brief sigh, I climb up it. For most of my muscles, it actually seems to work a few things out. For my left arm that's being a pain, the muscles stay tight and cramped.

Even that pain's forgotten though when I gaze up at the structure. It must've been a mighty temple when it was first built, but the walls have crumbled. Moss and cobwebs claiming it as their own. Is this really the place that'll bring the Order back together?

"This is it guys, this is the place." I jump down, my feet aching and tightening at the hard landing. Not to self: don't jump off of high places. There's probably an easier way down.

Reuben squeals as he falls, and with a startled oink he lands. I glance at him, making sure he's okay as I slowly go forward. Maybe I'm just being flaky with everything that happened, but I don't really want to head into the building that seems to have been abandoned for decades.

"I can't believe..." Guessing from the shock from Lukas, I might not be the only one. "This is the temple of the Order of the Stone?"

I open my mouth, and gently close it when I catch sight of the glass above the entrance. I've seen it before? Maybe? It seems familiar...

"Dude," I don't take my eyes off it, trying to figure out where I've seen the pattern. "It's just glass, why are you staring at it so much?"

A guess of where the pattern comes from floats into my head, and I distantly pull out the thing Gabriel gave me. It's about time I pulled it out anyway, it is pretty important after all.

"Whoa," I give half an ear to Olivia as I hold it up, and my guess was right, it's the same pattern. "What is that thing?"

"An amulet?" I bring it down, taking a good look at it. "I think so anyway, Gabriel kinda shoved it in my hands and said that this thing will show us where the Order is."

Lukas huffs, peering at it closely. "Can that thing even do that?"

I shrug, putting it back in my pocket. "I guess we'll find out soon enough. C'mon, let's see what's in this place."

With that, we all head into the dark hallway. The torches that were placed here long ago burned out, a weak embers glowing faintly and not doing much good. This place is really dark and really creepy.

Reuben whines, pressing up closer to me as we walk farther in. Not that I blame him, I don't really want to be in here either. But this place is way better than running for your life from a Wither Storm monster or whittling away in the Nether.

"Isn't it weird how dispensers are carved to look like spooky little faces?" I huff, a smile crawling up at the completely random thought Axel just voiced. "What do you dispense little guy?"

"Hmm, yeah..." Worry crackles in Olivia's voice, my smile dropping. "I get the feeling that we don't really wanna find out."

A spider hisses, my body tensing up. "Get behind me."

My right arm flexes, ready to whip out my sword at a moment's notice. I cautiously move forward again, scanning as the hisses get louder and more frequent. The first second I see that monster it's sword time.

Reuben shivers next to me, and when the spider hisses again, he bolts forward. Squealing madly as he dashes forward.

"Reuben! No!" I run after him, the others close behind me, feeling a pressure plant buckle under my feet. My heart clenches as we all come to a stop, a wall slamming down behind us and machinery coming to life behind the walls.

"That's probably not a good thing..." Axel gulps loudly, and again when the dispensers groan and creak. "Aw, come on dispenser faces! I thought we were friends!"

"Run!" My feet are quick to jump into action, sprinting forth as arrows spit out from the dispensers.

It only lasted a few seconds, a few seconds full of hours of terror. Limbs sporadically leaping up and rolling forward as if I could actually see the path of the arrows. And by pure luck alone, we all get to the other side breathless and terrified.

Olivia shakes as her head snaps between the walls of flying arrows. "We're trapped! There's no way we'd survive running through that!"

"Okay, okay..." Lukas trembles too, eyes snapping to that pressure plate and to a crafting table beside us. "We activated the dispensers with that pressure plate. If we can figure out a way to trigger it again, I'll bet that'll shut them off."

Axel huffs, rolling his eyes at him. "We could, y'know, just wait it out. There can't be an infinite amount of arrows in there."

"Besides, we don't have anything." Olivia's words quiver as she picks up Reuben, hugging and petting his trembling body. "All of our tools and materials are back home."

I shake my head, reaching for my pockets. "We don't have time to wait around. Let's just empty our pockets and see if we can make anything useful."

"I have some sticks from building the shelter last night." Lukas pulls out four sticks, setting them on the ground.

"I've got some flint." Olivia sets down Rueben, shrugging as she pulls out the items. "And a piece of string."

Axel throws down a handful of feathers onto a pile. "All I got are some chicken feathers when that machine exploded."

"Let's see here..." I dig around in my pockets, pulling out whatever. "I got a sword, flint and steel, the amulet, leftover fireworks I forgot to put in our build, and a couple pieces of string."

We all stare at the pile of junk. A bow instantly comes to mind, and I instantly brush it away. I've never shot a bow every well before, and I'm not betting anyone here knows how to shoot so well and are so confident that their arrow won't get knocked out of air by the dispensers.

A glorious light bulb goes off and I scoop up all the materials. The flint and feathers unnecessary, because it's fishing pole time. I'll be able to try as many times as I want, perfect solution.

"Okay," I pick up the fishing pole, the little bobber hanging down. "Let's do this."

I swing it back, rolling my shoulder as I narrow my eyes at my target. With a deep inhale, I fling it forward. The little bobber flying through the arrows, and I was right, got hit by an arrow mid flight and bounced uselessly to the side.

Grunting, I reel it back in. Swinging the rod again, this time going for more of a lob over all the arrows. With another deep breath, I use both arms to toss it up. My left arm stings lightly, kinda like it's hissing at me for using it, but it's easily ignored when the bobber flops onto the pressure plant.

Lukas lets out a sigh of relief when the flying arrows come to a stop. "All right, nice work Jesse."

Axel grins, and I high five him. "Oh yeah, the Order of the Pig's luck is changing."

I grin too, the silver of success pushing down the stress as I put the fishing pole into my inventory. I'll be pretty surprised if I need it again, but who knows? Maybe when my stomach actually decides it needs food I'll have a moment to fish.

Reuben oinks and pushes up against my leg, his way of saying good job. I smile down at him, bending down and scratching lightly between his ears. Getting another happy oink from him as we walk through the hallway.

We climb up some stairs, and while it's not the hardest thing at all, my lungs force me to take deeper breaths. Not pants or loud needy breaths, but still deeper breaths just the same. That stupid sense of doom creeping up on me, a faint ache from my left arm accompanying it.

"Wow..." Lukas is in awe as he stares at the library we've walked into. "This must be their enchantment room."

"Was at least." I grumble, cold dread prickling against me. "Hasn't been used in some time."

We spread out, and no matter how I shuffle or try to push it down, that looming doom stays fogged over me. Snickering at me as it knows something terrible is in my future and I'm stumbling at it blind. Only a awful dread tells me the light ache in my arm can't be ignored forever.

"Hey..." I give half an ear to Axel as I numbly walk through the shelves, trying to ignore it all. "Doesn't this look like Ivor's creepy basement?"

No one answers him, and just to put the cherry on top of terrible feelings, I get the sneaking suspicion that Axel has a point. There's a lack of potions and world eating monsters, but still, it gives that same vibe of creepiness. Or maybe the room has wilted away, completely forgotten, that it's just creepy regardless.

I sigh, not wanting to comb through any of these books. I don't feel like it, but if I'm being honest, the only thing I feel like doing is falling asleep. I definitely didn't get my regular amount of sleep last night. If I sleep I can't exactly feel awful anymore.

Stumbling along, I find myself next to Lukas. "So, find anything useful?"

"Not sure about useful..." His eyes scan over the books again, almost reluctant to turn to me. "But definitely on the interesting side of things. There is a lot of history in this room."

I nod, not exactly caring, and he goes back at staring at them. I hear Reuben sniff and snort at something, and when I look, I find him trying to get to an enchanting book on top of its alter. The book whispering its knowledge as I get closer.

"The battle was fierce... but the Order of the Stone emerged triumphant..."

My head perks up, my hands distantly pulling Reuben over to the side so I can get a better look at it.

"...saving the land and ensuring peace and prosperity would reign forever..."

Reuben whines at me and I pat his head before picking up the book, the sting from my left arm continually ignored. The whispers surrounding my thoughts, consuming my attention.

"These five members... five friends..."

"What?" It blurts out of me, and I almost drop the book as I continue reading. Everyone knows that there's only four members of the Order of the Stone, it's a part of their legend. Yet this, this book-

"Did you find something?" Lukas comes up behind me, and I hear the others getting closer too.

"Here, listen to this." I take a deep breath, finding the right place again. "These five members, five friends, together would give so much to gain their rightful place as five heroes."

"They would author their own end..."

I hold the book out to them, so all my friends could see the picture of Ivor with the rest of the Order.

"They would slay a dragon..."

"Ivor was a member of the Order of the Stone?" Shock radiates from Olivia, her eyes wide. "But- but the stories never mentioned him!"

Lukas shakes his head, whispering. "This is so crazy...."

I snort, setting the book down and closing it. "Explains why Gabriel froze up when Ivor revealed himself. And being erased out of history could explain how Ivor got so furious in the first place."

Anger suddenly breaks across Olivia's face. "They lied to us! They cut him from the stories and lied to the whole world about it! And it because of that there's a Wither Storm on the loose. Eating our home!"

"Why..." Axel scratches his head, not awed or angry, but just confused. "Why would they do that?"

Lukas turns back to the book, muttering to himself. "This is so crazy...."

This new, this drama, it's all so frustrating when trying to deal with this mess. "The Order isn't exactly what we thought they were, but we can't change that now. Right now, Petra is still out and that monster is still out there. That's what we focus on, nothing else."

Lukas snaps himself out of it at my words, raising his head. "Jesse's right, we came here with a purpose."

"Where do these stairs go?" I whip to Olivia, and indeed, there's a spiral of quartz stairs going up. The doom I pushed away for a few moments whispering back over me again as I walk to her, telling me that I'm going to get to tired from simply going up.

That there's something wrong with me.

I growl softly, curling my fists and stomping up the stairs. "Let's find out, shall we?"

Despite a growing frustration and denial at this doom, there's no ignoring it. As much as I wish I could just push it away and never think about it again, that's hard when I'm trying not to make it obvious when I'm breathing pretty hard. Or when the first stage of fatigue wanders into my legs. Or that the faint ache in my arm refuses to go away despite how faint it is.

The stairs open up into some huge floor, and I would awe at it with the others, but I'm getting too fed up to do so. Fed up with getting tired and being just a tad weaker than everyone else. Fed up with wandering around like I know what I'm doing only to run for my life a few minutes later. Fed up with the tension between Axel and Lukas. Fed up that the Order caused this problem. Fed up that I don't know where Petra is and I can't do anything about it. Fed up that there's a monster threatening all the lives of my friends and I can't do anything to hurt it. Just... fed up.

"What happened to the walls?"

I roll my eyes at Axel, grumpiness not budging from my head. "More like what happened to this whole place."

Olivia gasps, and I let my shoulders droop. "This must have been where they met!"

"Well..." Axel glances around at the crumbling temple. "Where are they then?"

I pull out the amulet, the object seems so... useless in my hands. "Gabriel said this would lead us to them..."

I trail off, since I'm sure they can all see the lack of anything coming from it. "Let's look around, see if we can find anything."

They all scatter apart, my eyes lifting towards the big map. I blink for a moment, realizing I'm looking at the entire world. I mean... it's huge, if this even is the end of it. Mighty rivers look so puny on it, entire biomes only a few blocks big.

Sighing when I see nothing too important, I turn away. Yet my eyes catch on Axel, who's staring up at the map while the others pay it no mind. A twinge of guilt crawls into me, he hasn't been handling all of this well and we keep getting on him because of it.

Sighing, I head up to him. "So, whatcha lookin' at?"

Axel just grunts at me, turning his back. "Nothing, whatever."

"Uh..." I bite my lower lip, so far this has not been going every well. But I'm his friend, I can't just let him suffer by himself. "Axel...?"

"It's-" Axel sighs, his shoulders and head falling. "It's just that I was just trying to figure out where Petra might be."

I open my mouth but he turns back around, smiling casually with eyes glazed over. "I mean, I know she's going to be fine, but I was just curious."

"We're gonna find her." I stomp my foot down, my jaw set in determination. "I promise you Axel, we will find her."

Axel simply nods and stares back up at the map, his smile falling. I step away from him, getting even more tired. He's been having a really hard time with this, but can I even do to help him? He's getting really angry, and I have to calm him down but then I don't have any time to talk to him on a more understanding level.

I groan, glancing at Lukas. Perhaps I should check on him too, perhaps everyone's pushing down their emotions just for the sake of going forward. I know I am, and I know I don't want the others to feel this way.

"Hey," Lukas glances up as I stand in front of him. "Find anything interesting in that book?"

"Well, the only thing I've found so far is that the amulet was used to track the positions of the members of the Order."

My eyebrows shoot up, this could be helpful. "And... does it mention how?"

Lukas shrugs sheepishly, shooting me an apologetic smile. "It's less technical and, well, more historical."

"Thanks anyway, I guess." He nods and goes straight back into the book, so I guess that leaves Olivia. I'll check in with her and then get this map to do what it's suppose to do.

I pause when I see the pedestal she's next to. It certainly looks important, and the banner on it has the amulet on it. I grin and pull out the amulet, which fits perfectly in between the stone and fence. So I guess that's how this amulet plays a part in all this.

"We're in the Order of the Stone's Temple. The Order's ACTUAL temple." Olivia smiles up at me. "Who'd would've though it huh? Bunch small towners like us wrapped up in an adventure like this."

"Yeah, uh, pretty insane." Some sort of smile makes it onto my face as I scratch my head, dread staring down at me again. "I just hope we all come out the other side in one piece."

Since I'm sure I just made things awkward, I head to a bunch of levers that seem pretty important. And after getting really furious with trying to figure out the right combination to make them work, I get the light to turn on. A white beam shooting out onto the amulet.

"It's absolutely incredible!" I definitely agree with Olivia on that one, the white beam splitting into a green and red one. Somehow moving to specific locations on the map. I'm surprised I didn't trip over my own feet in amazement as I head towards it.

Olivia can't stop smiling as we all come together to look at it properly. "Okay, I'm impressed with the amulet now."

"Holy..." My mouth buffers as I begin to wrap my head around this. "They actually built a tracking system. The Order, this thing, it's showing us where the Order is right now."

My own words hit me, when I see the red for Ellegaard and green for Magnus. My shoulders drop, I suppose it makes sense there's no color for Gabriel. He really is gone, maybe if I did something differently he wouldn't have been caught in the tractor beam, but now it doesn't matter.

He's gone.

Doom, hopelessness, hangs over me, I can't hear what the others are saying. My left arm bashes at my attention. Every stiff muscle and tired bones suddenly screaming their exhaustion. A hero is gone, why am I even trying?

Out of the corner of my eye, I spot Axel turn his head to me, expecting something. I blink, seeing Lukas staring at me too, and Olivia. All of them looking at me when I don't even know what has just been said, all of their faces full of worry.

I narrow my eyes, doesn't matter what I feel, I have to make them feel better. "That Wither Storm is still out there. If there are only two lights, only... only two heroes left, then we know what we're doing."

"Wait..." Axel scratches the back of head, shoulders falling. "There are only two members left?"

The thick weight of depression presses on the very air at his words, making it hard to simply breathe. I have to get rid of it. If I'm not going to let monsters hurt my friends, then I'm not going to let this hurt them either.

"We don't know everything about this map." Gabriel's death hangs heavily in my mind, yet I try desperately to make my voice sound hopeful. "It probably doesn't work in all cases."

Lukas hums, most likely rubbing his chin. "So that leaves Magnus then."

Olivia huffs, pointing at the red light. "Or Ellegaard."

"Well..." I suppose we could spilt up into two, that should work fine. "Let's head out."

"I'm not going with you guys." I sharply inhale, turning to look at the determined Lukas. "I have to stay here. If I know Petra, then she's probably doing everything she can to find this place. She's still out there, she has to be."

"Just..." I end up sighing and nodding, not having the strength to convince him otherwise. "Stay safe, okay?"

"If there's even a small chance she's alive, I have to stay." He takes a deep breath, face clouded in various emotions. "Go, get help. I'm going to focus on making this place safe before nightfall."

He sighs, looking around the places as if realizing how large it is. "This is a pretty big temple though. If we're gonna have a chance at fortifying it, I'm going to need some help. If, uh, maybe one of you guys could hang back with me?"

Axel humphs, crossing his arms. "Yeah, sounds like Olivia'll have you totally covered while me and Jesse are out finding Magnus."

"'Finding Magnus'?" She snorts, placing her hands on her hips as she glares at Axel. "You really think that's how it's going to go?"

Olivia steps to me, pointing at the red light. "We need Ellegaard, she's the world's greatest engineer. She'll figure out a way to stop that thing."

"We are trying to DESTORY it. And when it comes to destruction, Magnus is the master." Axel moves under where the green light hits the map, nodding determinedly. "You're a smart person Jesse, and obviously the SMART thing to do is go get Magnus."

Olivia glares at Axel, planting herself under Ellegaard's light. "I think Axel meant Ellegaard there Jesse."

"Uh no, I don't think I did." Axel scowls, glaring back at her. "Pretty sure Axel meant Magnus."

"Okay, the point is, you should be going to Ellegaard's." I internally groan as my friends fight, I don't have endless amounts of energy to deal with this. "It's the clear choice to make."

"Dude, you've got to come with me." Boom Town, that's where Magnus lives I think. That sounds... exhausting.

"You're my best friend, Jesse." I sigh, I see now we've gotten into the 'Let's-see-who-can-emotionally-tear-Jesse-apart-first' game. My favorite.

"It's you and me, like always." Axel takes the high score as even though I desperately want to make him feel better, Redstonia sounds so much easier to travel to. So much calmer, and less life threatening.

"Think about it Jesse, Ellegaard-."

Axel immediately snorts, crossing his arms at her. "Uh, this is more of a gut call kind of thing."

"We need to make sure we get this right." Olivia glares at him again, and I know I couldn't handle Boom Town even if I wanted to. "We're not going to get a-"

"Olivia," I try not to wince at Axel's devastation, oh man, commence guilt. "You and I are going to Redstonia."

A wide smile bursts from her lips. "Awesome."

"Axel..." I turn to him as I rub my left arm, which doesn't hurt very much at all with all this mental and emotional strife going on. "You stay here with Lukas and get the place ready for when Petra shows up."

He rolls his eyes, lips pulled up in disgust. "What? With that guy?"

"I'm..." Lukas shifts uncomfortably. "I'm right here."

"C'mon Axel," Olivia thankfully is at least going to try to get Axel to cooperate. "For Petra's sake."

"Fine, I'll do it. For Petra."

I smile at him, despite the bitterness dripping from his voice. "I'll take it."

Although I don't even take two steps to the stairs before the sky rumbles. A dark shadow falling over the temple.

"Umm... guys?" We all look around at Lukas's nervous question. All of our eyes widening and jaws slacking open when we stare at the horizon.

The Wither Storm, so huge it blocks the sun, so huge it doesn't look every far from us at all. Massive tentacles that look ten times larger than tree protruding out of it. Its mighty roars even whispering in our ears all the way over here. Doom and a throb from my left arm snatching my attention.

"Please hurry."