"Petra?"

"Petra, can you hear me?"

"Come on, now, Petra... wake up."

Petra heavily blinked open her eyes, groaning softly. She was lying on her back, on something somewhat soft. Above her was a dark grey stone ceiling, a single cobweb dangling from the corner. She could smell dust.

"There you are... I was getting worried."

Petra turned her head to the side, seeing the slightly fuzzy shape of Lukas beside her. His brow furrowed in concern, blue eyes laced with worry.

"What happened?" Petra asked, closing her eyes again and reaching up to touch her sore forehead.

"You fainted." Lukas said, raking a hand through his blonde hair. "There was a door in the hallway that lead to this little room... not sure what it's meant to be, but at least there's some seats in here that's more comfortable than the stone flooring outside."

Petra gave Lukas a small appreciative nod.

"You were out for quite a few minutes... how are you feeling?" Lukas asked her, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Like somebody with the world's worst flu." Petra mumbled as she finally gathered to courage to heave herself into a sitting position. She closed her eyes for a few seconds, slowly recalling everything that happened.

"Do you believe me?" Petra asked, straight to the point.

Lukas lowered himself onto another seat next to the one Petra had been lying on, taking a deep breath.

"I would be blind if I didn't believe that something was going on." Lukas said. "You're Petra, probably the most stubborn person I know. Yet, a few minutes ago, you were literally pleading for my help. If that isn't a sign that something is going on, then I don't know what is."

"Geez thanks." Petra muttered, swiftly glaring over at Lukas. "No need to rub in the fact that I got desperate."

Lukas smiled for a brief second, before it faltered again. "Listen, before we get to the more complicated side of things... What exactly is wrong with you?"

Petra looked down at her arm, rolling up her sleeve again to reveal the veins. She sighed softly.

"Honestly, I think this is a part of the more complicated side of things... Wither Sickness, from getting in contact with the Wither Storm's tractor beams or tentacles for an extended period of time."

Lukas gave her an encouraging nod to go on.

"It's fatal." Petra said, causing his face to fall. "But I don't believe this to be normal Wither Sickness. We'll get to that later, let's just say... I'm deteriorating a lot faster than I'm meant to."

Lukas slowly exhaled, raking his fingers through his blonde hair again, and causing it to stand on end. Petra could see that the part about her slowly dying has really only just gotten through to him.

Lukas lowered his head, pinching the bridge of his nose. "So the whole, 'we're back in time' thing..." He said, not looking up.

"It sounds crazy." Petra said bluntly. "I know. If I wasn't first-hand experiencing this – I'd think it was a load of crap as well."

"I want to believe you." Lukas said, looking up. "You're my friend, Petra. I know you, and you're not crazy... but this all just sounds so bizarre."

"Isn't this whole wither storm bizarre?" Petra pointed out vaguely, causing Lukas to crack a faint smile.

"I guess so." He said softly, his smile fading again. He looked up at Petra, expression serious.

"Aiden." He said softly. "He... did this?"

"I know it's hard to believe." Petra said softly. "And I understand if you doubt me, it's no secret that I've never liked Aiden. But you also know I'm not the type of girl who'd go around and pin crazy accusations like this on people, simply because I don't like them."

"I mean, you have done rash things when you get angry-"

"Lukas!"

He chuckled vaguely as Petra glared daggers at him. But then he took another deep breath.

"Let's say I believe you; how does Aiden get anything out of this? Is he planning to, what, pop up out of nowhere and steal Jesse's spotlight or what?"

"This bit I didn't understand either, not until yesterday evening that is." Petra said softly. "I think Aiden might be disguised as Jesse... with Maya and Gill as Olivia and Axel."

Once more, Lukas was gaping at Petra like a fish out of the water. He sat slightly back on the seat, shaking his head to himself as he finally got a word out. "Huh?"

"Don't ask me how." Petra said, rubbing her forehead. "I overheard them last night, which confirmed this suspicion." She racked her brain for the exact words, carefully reciting what she could remember to Lukas.

"This just went to whole new level of odd." Lukas said, his voice almost dazed as Petra finished.

"That's where my line of knowledge ends." Petra said, shaking her head. "I don't even know where to go from here..."

They were silent for a few seconds, just pondering over what had been said. Petra took this as an opportunity to rest her stinging eyes for a bit, hating how incredibly tired she felt.

"I think I know what's going on here." Lukas said softly, sitting upright. Petra opened her eyes, raising her head out of her hands to look up at him.

"Aiden wants the ocelots to become the new heroes." Lukas said. "Him, Maya, Gill and me. A perfect replacement for your group.

Jesse's already dead, so he took her place. Who knows what he did to Axel and Olivia, in order to replace them with Maya and Gill. He erased my memories so I could cooperate and fall right into his trap.

And by the looks of things, he's trying his very hardest to make sure you don't make it out of the battle alive."

"Of course..." Petra said softly, realisation hitting her like a stab to the heart.

She raised her infected arm, sleeve still rolled up. "He made sure.. even if he can't get me out of the picture on his own, the sickness will quickly do the job for him."

"We need to somehow stop this." Lukas said firmly.

"So you do believe me?" Petra asked, smiling vaguely. "I was under the impression you still thought I hit my head or something."

"I trust you." Lukas said, returning the faint smile. "Everything adds up and... let's just say I wouldn't put it past the rest of the ocelots to come up with something as trippy as this."

Petra snorted slightly, but then smiled. If she ended up getting back in the present again, she was clearing out a room in that tree-house for Lukas, no matter how much Axel complained about it.

"Listen." Lukas said. "I read a book once... old thing, pages tattered and faded. It discussed the lore of time travel, which greatly fascinated me, even if I didn't believe it at the time."

"You know how to reverse this?" Petra asked hopefully.

"No." Lukas said, sighing. "In fact, I don't believe there is a way to reverse this spell..."

Petra leaned against the backrest of the seat, taking a deep breath. If the spell wasn't reversible, there was no way she'd live to see the present day again.

"Time travel spells reverse on their own, after a certain time span." Lukas explained, trying to remember what he had read. "How Aiden cast it, will depend when we're whipped back to the present. Of course, with the changes then in affect."

"Well that's just great." Petra muttered. "I might as well throw myself off a cliff right now and spare myself the journey."

"Soren." Lukas suddenly said, snapping his fingers. "In the past, did we ever find Soren? If anybody has a way to reverse this, I bet it would be him."

"We did, but the guy's a wacko." Petra said, sighing. "We're not going to get anywhere with him..." She trailed off, thoughtfully tapping her chin. "But resourceful he was. You should see the library at his place. No doubt there will be something on time travel there, something more resourceful than what you have read."

She had barely spoken the last word, when Petra realised something, her next sentence almost choking in her throat.

"What?" Lukas asked, Petra looking up at him.

"How long have we even been in here?" She asked. "If we're going to get to Soren, not to even mention Aiden, we need to get back to the group! Before Ivor closes them off from us!"

"Before he what?" Lukas asked in confusion.

Petra scrambled to her feet, clasping her fingers around Lukas's wrist and pulling him up, signalling for him to follow her out of the room.

"Take it slow!" Lukas said, only just about keeping up with Petra. "You fainted less than ten minutes ago, Petra! Overexerting yourself is going to make things worse!"

"No time for that right now, I can worry about it once my adrenaline wears off." Petra replied matter-of-factly, barely even caring about her current well-being.

Ignoring Lukas's advice of stopping to rest, she dragged him out of the hallway, straight into the other one and following an all too familiar path. It wasn't too long before she was able to hear Ivor's voice in the distance, Petra quickly increasing her pace.

"Petra!? Lukas!?" Jesse called in shock, seeing the two of them sprinting up to the hallway.

"More of you?" Ivor bellowed.

"Yes, more of us!" Petra snapped, not even giving him a chance to finish his sentence.

She darted right into the room, dragging Lukas in after her, huffing and puffing like he just finished a marathon. Petra herself was breathing petty heavily, but she covered it up as she came to stop right beside Jesse, crossing her arms as she promptly waited for Ivor to pull out his potion,

"Where the hell were you two?" Jesse hissed, clutching her stone sword tightly. "Could have used you earlier!"

It was on the tip of Petra's tongue to point out that those weren't the right lines. But, deciding to save her breath for when she actually needed it, just kept her mouth shut.

"Whatever." Jesse hissed. "We stopped him without you."

"False!" Ivor called out dramatically. "You have stopped nothing. Have you ever seen the effects of a splash potion of slowness?"

He ripped the bottle out of his pocket, slamming it down at their feet. Petra immediately felt her heartbeat slowing, her gasping breaths slamming on the breaks. Disoriented as everything slowed down immensely.

She watched as the others tried moving, pitifully trying to run after Ivor, getting nowhere as the door began closing behind him. Axel slowly beginning to faceplant.

And then everything sped up again.

Petra staggered slightly on the spot, her balance thrown off as everything suddenly shot back to normal speed. Blind to what was happening around her, trying to focus on the pulsing pain in her legs, the tightness in her chest, barely able to suck enough breath in.

"We need to find Soren." Jesse said through gritted teeth, staring up at the bookcase.

Finally something that makes sense came out of your mouth. Petra thought bitterly as she leaned back against the wall, taking a few deep breaths.

She saw Jesse lightly glance back at her, only shooting a glare back in return. Jesse's eyes narrowed, spinning back so was facing forward again. Once she wasn't looking, Petra promptly stuck her tongue out.

"Holding up okay?" Lukas's voice as barely a whisper as he came to stand beside Petra.

"Still on my feet. That's all that matters." Petra muttered in response.

Lukas didn't say anything, only nodding. He did reach out, giving Petra a vague pat on the shoulder. She resisted the urge to shrug him off.

"Hey guys, I have an idea."

Petra and Lukas both looked up when they heard Axel's statement. The big guy cupped his hands to his face, next moment yelling up at the bookcases.

"Magnus, help!"

It was silent, everybody staring at him with unamused expressions on their faces.

"Well alright." Axel said. "I have another idea." He began raising his hands back up to his mouth.

"Is it yelling for Ellegaard?" Olivia asked, raising an eyebrow.

Axel slowly lowered his hands, face falling. "Well, not any more."

Jesse glanced slightly back over to Lukas and Petra, her eyes falling on Lukas. Giving him an expectant glance, waiting for him to speak. Lukas raised his eyebrows slightly, obviously not even knowing why he was given that look.

"W-Well, no need for desperation!" Jesse spoke up, not bothering to wait for Lukas any longer. "As long as we have this."

Petra scoffed as Jesse pulled out the amulet. You were supposed to accidentally pull out flint and steal first. She thought bitterly.

As Jesse held the amulet up, the colours slightly faded. This caught Lukas's attention.

"Let me see that." He said stepping forward and taking a hold of the amulet.

Petra internally groaned, leaning more of her weight onto the wall. Some things never change, I guess.

"I just want to see it." Lukas said in frustration as he tried tugging the amulet from Jesse's grip.

"You can see it without touching." She hissed back.

"Not if you can't get it to work." Lukas argued back.

"It's working fine!"

Suddenly the white light on the amulet lit up, causing Lukas to let go with a gasp of surprise. Instead of her astonished call, Jesse raised an eyebrow at Lukas and smirked. "Soren." She said triumphantly.

"Well, are you going to follow the light and find him?" Petra asked, causing Jesse to roll her eyes.

"Yes." She said through gritted teeth, beginning to move the amulet around.

"Well." Lukas muttered as he came to stand next to Petra again. "If anything, this proves your point even more. That grip was way too strong to be Jesse."

"Oh, she beat you the first time as well." Petra said with a chuckle, Lukas raising his eyebrows in surprised.

"Maybe I need to work out then." He mumbled, leaning back against the wall as well.

Petra glanced down, hearing a small whimper. Reuben was standing at her feet, looking up at her with big eyes. If Petra had the strength to, she would have picked him. Instead she knelt down beside him, scratching him behind his ears.

Reuben grunted in pleasure, closing his eyes and nuzzling his snout into Petra's hand.

"Get away from my pig."

Petra looked up in surprise to see Jesse glaring over at her from where she was kneeling on the ground with the amulet.

"He walked up to me." Petra snapped back, feeling herself start to loose her cool. "Maybe if you'd pay attention to him, he wouldn't be seeking out others this much."

"How dare you-" Jesse started, getting up again.

"She does have a point." Axel pointed out, earning a slap to the shoulder from Olivia.

"Shut up." Jesse hissed back at him, her face starting to turn red with anger.

"Okay, okay, before we all start fighting now." Lukas said, holding up his hands. He gestured to where Jesse had been kneeling. "Is that where the amulet was leading to?"

Jesse crossed her arms, still glaring at Petra. She gave a stiff nod.

"Then that's where we're going." Lukas said matter-of-factly. "Anybody got a pickaxe?"

Jesse's mouth opened in astonishment, no words coming out. Petra had to hold back from snorting at her surprised reaction. Clearly Lukas's sudden optimism threw her off guard completely.

Even Axel and Olivia looked a little uncertain about what to do at that moment. Jesse glanced over at them, waiting for Axel to make the first move and start digging. When he didn't, she just turned back to the front, increased frustration resting on her face.

"Let's get to it then."

___

Well, somebody's plans aren't going as smoothly anymore xD

I'm actually really loving writing on this book. I should start doing more books based on the other characters beside Jesse! This is fun!

I also just really like this story line, and I have the ending all planned out in my head. Still going to be a while before we get there, tho!

Anyhow, I don't have a ton to say here! Any theories or thoughts? I'd love to hear 'em!

See you all in 14 days with the next!