I stare at Petra, desperately trying to think of some way to get her through the portal. I know Petra can take care of herself, but this! It's not like she's gone up against one of these before! We need her alive, we'll probably die without her.

"AAGGHH!"

We snap our heads towards Gabriel, who's being dragged up by the purple beam. Petra runs towards him without hesitation, and I'm only a second behind her. I hope Lukas instead goes through that portal, he doesn't even have a weapon on him to help.

Purple shines down in front of me and I stop just in time. Petra did get caught though, her feet dangling in the air next to me. Quickly I reach in and yank her out. She falls to the ground, but I just start sprinting to Gabriel.

He's much higher up now, but if I jump high enough I can pull him out. I'll be able to grab him, I need to. We have to have Gabriel, he's the only one who knows how to get the other members of the Order. Without them, there isn't any hope left.

I leap up perfectly, Gabriel's within reach! I can do this! But in mid air, one of the tentacles whips me from behind. The world spins for a moment before halting. Purple surrounds me, I'm trapped in the tentacle with Gabriel.

The distance towards the ground grows larger and larger as we get closer to that thing. But I am doing what I jumped for, freeing Gabriel. He can survive this fall, even without his armor I know he can.

"Do me a favor and keep my friends safe!" I lean back and kick the warrior as hard as I can. He gets out of the beam and crashes to the ground. Sore, but alive.

I watch relieved as he gets up and pulls a furious Petra towards the portal. Although my friends might not be the best to handle this, I have unwavering faith they will do it. Besides, I refuse to die hopeless and miserable.

My arms start to stiffen up and I can't move my legs apart. I pass through the floors and ceilings of the temples, watching my skin grow black and my limbs fusing together. The nightmarish monstrosity grows ever closer, this is it. So with my last thought, I pray that my friends will avenge me and kill this warped Wither.

~~~~~~~~

I can't see, I can't move, I can barely even think. I want to whimper as it's freezing is all around me, draining me... exhausting me.

I want to know where I am, but only darkness ripples out from me in all directions.

Does that make me darkness? Can darkness feel this kind of pain, this kind of suffering? Darkness can't think, can it? Am I thinking? Isn't thinking a tool to understand something? How can I think when I never gain any understanding?

Whatever this is then, this agonizing existence, I want it to stop. These sensations of ice needles plunging everywhere into me even though I don't know if I have any limbs. Or this pressing feeling of nausea, making some part of me wither and twist in torment.

It's shouldn't be so hard for me to stop... just being aware of everything squeezes the energy from me.

Every moment gets more difficult than the last, but it's never too much. Somehow, I am still painfully aware of this torture.

Is there anything I can do to ease the suffering? To maybe ignore the frozen darkness painfully digging into me. I try to do something, but I can't.

Was there ever a time when I wasn't like this? Every time I reach back, nothing... Nothing... I am nothing?

Cold, absence of heat. Darkness, absence of light. Misery, absence of happiness. I can't even move or anything, which is the absence of life. Absence is nothing, so that's me?

An icy venom shoots throughout me, making my existence even more torturous. Nothing... that makes me want to cry out, to scream.

But alas, I have no mouth to speak. No lungs to breath with. And no one to even come and help me.

Every second, not only do I feel even colder than the last. Not only do I become heavier and agonized. But every second gets longer.

Dragging out my pain....

Slowly twisting the life out of me....

Plucking every shred of warmth I have a sliver at a time...

And every second I plead. I plead and plead with my existence because I'm still not sure if these are thoughts or not.

I need something to just alleviate me, to take this all away. I don't care if that even permanently removes my ability to be aware. I just want it gone.

Yet as the cold claws into my existence more and more, it starts to freeze that want. The heavy darkness starts to wear me out and crush any hope of being free.

And the pain... that twisting torturous agony... chews up and spits out the idea of a sweet release.

I don't even know what happiness is, it could awful for all I know. At least with the freezing cold daggers jabbing into me every single second I know that I'm... not warm? I don't even know what warm is either.

Do I even know what I was pleading for? Perhaps this is the best it's going to get?

I simply have an eternity to get colder and colder. This excruciating misery will grow within me forever. This is my existence.

It would be... what's the word? A sense of knowing? Is that what I... what I... what? What am I trying to go for? Something not worse?

Icy coils squeeze into me and waves of darkness crash upon me. That doesn't make sense...

What's a wave? I have... no, I've never been aware of one.

And a... coil? Is that another word for darkness?

In fact, how do I know that this isn't exactly what I was.... I was... something for?

Darkness could be white... I don't know what white looks like. I can't even see.

And... am I confused?

Wait... what's confused?

Is it darkness, cold, and pain together?

If I'm confused, would I be part of that?

I am... freezing though.

To me... it is... dark.

This suffering... isn't me?

Perhaps I am not aware at all...

I'm not something different... from this... these sensations.

Maybe I truly am nothing...

I am the darkness...

and the cold...

and even this torturous misery that I used to... regard differently.

I get it now... from the start I've been this...

and I'll be like this forever.

~~~~~~~~

I feel something.... something not the same. Is this a new part of me? It's been forever since I've experienced something different. Maybe this is my first time? I wonder what it is.

Something in me moves, thumping. But that's not the way it is. I only have an existence, nothing separate from me. I am aware, the dark, the cold, and the suffering. My existence doesn't move, or thumps for that matter.

A new sensation spreads throughout me, it is different, foreign, off. It feels the exact opposite from the cold. But then how am I aware of it. It is not me. I don't want it.

Want? Is that this feeling? A desire to change? But I cannot change, am I nothing. What is inflicting me with these... these... thoughts?

Thoughts are impossible for the cold and the dark and the agony. Although this agony rippling through me is different, a... a burning sensation. Spreading from one part to more.

If I can spread, does that mean my existence has a limit? This is hard... I'm struggling to continue... being aware of these new things. Everything has this... burning pain, this is... not what I'm... used to.

Something moves... to the right of my existence... but I can feel it. Then another... on the... opposite side. At once they... both go the same way... and the pressing darkness... vanishes.

A terrifying white stinging, uh, thing burns two similar things that are different to the things that just moved. All the while, something rushes into me! Only nothing can be apart of me, but I can feel this... stuff enter into me under and in between the two similar things that sting!

Perhaps I can use the weird move-y things to push away the sting like how they pushed the darkness off. And the left one twitches! I commanded it and it followed the command! The cold, dark, and misery never followed my commands!

I move my limbs in front of the... the... eyes? Yes my eyes! What do eyes do though? Do they just sting? If so, I'll take my darkness back.

There's this thing directly over the stinging though, perhaps I can command that too! I move the eye covers and the white comes a something else, and then I move them again. But the sting white isn't there any, instead there's another new thing too now! Something not white or black.

It's pale... and this strange feeling of knowing rises within me, but I don't know what that is. In front of it are white dots, but each one is totally different the other. I wonder what they are?

Although, I wonder why the burning pain went away? Was it because the pressing dark thing was removed, or maybe it was that stuff rushing into me only to get pushed out? What is that called... a necessity? Air? I think it's important.

I can't tell if this new existence is worse or not. It's weird not to feel pain clawing into me, or the cold piecing everything, or a darkness pressing into me from all sides. At least I knew what was happening though, that every second I would get more in tune with what I am... or was.

But now there's this sense... but not exactly. I can't feel it, but it's in me and affecting me. It's making me heavy, although there's nothing above me. It's this lacking of knowledge that's snatching up energy.

I don't even know what it's called and that only makes this thing stronger, affecting me even more.

So far this existence, has made me weaker. I used to be pain and darkness and cold, but now I think that stuff weakens me and will end me if I get too much. And I'm still stuck. Am I just suppose to sit here not knowing anything?

I wonder if I can change that? Command something else to move. But what else do I have? The two... arms, that's what they're called. The eyes and eye cover things. The thumping thing and the expanding thing, but those are moving on their own.

Something bends behind the thumping and expanding things! It even moves the upper part where my awareness is, and the eyes too! I suppose this strong noodle thing is important to my existence.

I feel something twitch something below me. They are kinda like the arms, but longer, thicker, stronger. Maybe it's my, uh... my... legs! The legs have a different use.

Since my eyes tell me stuff, perhaps I can command them to show me what my legs are like. They move to where my legs are, and I was right! They are different than my arms.

Moving my eyes back and forth to my arms and legs, I examine the differences while I move the limbs around. The arms are thinner, but I can move them in different ways. My legs are indeed longer and thicker, but can't go up like the arms.

They also look different. My legs are one pure closer with a kind of light gray knobs sticking out at the end. While the arms are white, the weird very moveable small limbs at the end are paler and five limbs attached to that.

The area where my heart and lungs and spine are...

A quick rush of air shoots into me as I just knew what the things apart of me are! Perhaps this existence is better than the cold, dark, and painful one. Although, why does the rush of air follow with that unexpected occurrence?

"There... people... help you..."

Without my commands, my spine straights. I'm no longer against pressing down on something. But another new thing! I wonder what it is!

Suddenly, I feel really light. Nothing has changed really, but everything seems better. And something below the area where air is moving in and out of me, stretches. It's weird, but it makes me feel even better!

I never want to be apart of the cold and dark and the pain ever again! This existence is so much better! I can actually move, decide things, change stuff! Is this the opposite of pain? Because I want to be apart of this now.

"You're safe now! The Wither Storm's dead!"

There's that thing again, but stronger. It must be something like what my eyes see, not apart of me, but I can still learn from it.

But 'Safe' what's that? I believe it means in a good place. But Wither Storm? I don't want to be near that. And 'dead' sends an unpleasant, but not painful, twitch thing down my spine.

Maybe I can move over there? Get closer to it so my eyes can look at it. But how to? I've been able to move my limbs individually, but can I move one so it can move the others?

Well, if my spine moves what's above it, then that also applies to the other limbs. My legs can be moved beneath me, and then they could move and carry everything else! Goodness! Thinking is so awesome!

I gave the command to my legs, and everything else just moved accordingly. I didn't even have to think about it! In only a few seconds, that once only were filled with suffering and the cold, I have stood up with my own limbs and moved!

Although I can a pull back down, my legs with ease hold me up as I travel across the black stuff. I do trip once or twice, but then I'm caught by my arms and the... hands! My hands reach out and stop the fall, so my awareness processing area is safe.

That stretched stuff under my air transfer area hasn't changed position. I wonder if that's an indicator about the rest of me. So when it's stretched out like this, it means my limbs are all very light and moveable.

"NO! No no no! ANYONE! I NEED SOME HELP!"

That made the stretched stuff tighten together, but then my legs start to move really fast along the black stuff. I really like this existence, so I'm going to get rid of that bad, unpleasant stuff so it can be perfect again. Besides, I think I classify as an 'anyone'.

My eyes are telling me that the black stuff ends but there is a... gray area to move on under it. That's fine, the pull downwards will take me there.

The landing to the gray area, throws everything off. I'm still moving forward, but not in control. More like flailing trying to get my legs in the right position. I manage though to keep my body upright, which means I'm pretty darn good already with this existence.

My eyes lock onto the thing making that new sensation I haven't figured out yet. It looks like me, the limbs are all the same. Like, it has black on its arms and sides with a really pale fluff above the eyes that look like the sheet above me. It's not exactly like my existence, so maybe this is a different existence that I'm not connected to.

My legs dash over to the existence, my lips tightening! I know that existence looks the opposite of good, and I don't like that state so it probably doesn't like it either. So in order to avoid that pain, I'll get that existence out of there.

I command my arms to move towards one of its and my hands to clasp around it. Immediately I feel this pull, similar to the constant one down, but stronger and more forceful. And it is definitely pulling me somewhere I desire to not be near.

"J-Jesse?!"

My legs lock themselves to place, and I lean back against the pull. I'm now using the down pull to resist the bad pull! Incredible! This existence is so much more vast and fascinating compared to my last one!

Perhaps this existence is more aware than I am and can teach me more about it! Like what is a 'jesse'? There's the faint sense like I know, but nothing else. Perhaps it's just a way of showing happiness at another existence's choices.

The bad pull vanishes, and the down pull brings my spine bumping into the gray stuff. It didn't feel good, but it's nothing to when I was apart of agony. Although the other existence looks weird now. Like not bad, but its eyes covers are pulled all the way back and its lips are parted.

"Jesse! You... You're alive!"

Now the existence.... smiles? Yes, that's when the lips stretch in a way that means goodness. So I guess I did make it better. Which also causes my lips to smile! This is so great!

A terrible wave hurts two areas, one each on the side of my head. I think it's my ears, and they're hurting the same way my eyes first reacted to seeing. So my ears are picking up these strange sensations. I still don't know what they are.

The black stuff all around my existence start to rise, although they don't have any limbs to move them. How are they repelling the down pull? And why is only the black stuff collecting? There's nothing bad about black, but when there's too much it becomes darkness. Darkness was bad in my last existence.

"Jesse, we got to go!" The other existence moves away from where all the black stuff is going. "The Command Block still works!"

I decide to start figuring out the other existence's words. The block it mentioned, perhaps this block commands the other blocks how I command my limbs. And 'still works' means it hasn't lost this ability. 'We' implies two things, my existence and its, and 'go' means to move somewhere in the current moment.

But the darkness wasn't the worse part of my last existence, it was the cold and the pain. So I don't know why this existence implied necessity to the words 'got to'. And my last guess on the 'jesse' was not good. Maybe I can make those words exit my body too so the other existence can respond to them.

"What's a jesse?"

I smile, that was very easy! Just like standing and moving! I bet it won't take long for me to completely master this new existence!

The other existence doesn't smile, but I can't think of why it wouldn't be. But that's fine! I can command my mouth to ask him, then I'll know.

Another massive roar hurts my ears, and two more echo it. I turn to look at this thing that causes my good sensations to go away. My eyes show me a huge mass of darkness, swirling everywhere.

A new feeling enters my awareness. It is not good, not good at all. In fact, it is the first extremely bad new thing I've gotten so far in this existence. Something in my existence tells me to stay away from this.

It tells me that this will rip this good existence away from me if it catches me. That this is what caused my last existence to be so dark and cold and agonizing.

So I've decided to trust that part of my existence and stay away from this... this Wither.

****

Well that was really fun!

I just loved writing Jesse as like a kid learning everything for the first time! So much, that I'm going to make a squeal to this one. But he'll be learning much more complex things in that one.

Also sorry for the lateness, life just kinda... exploded for a moment. All good now!

Okay, so the next oneshot is Memories! And no, although the prompt is fitting, I'm not already doing the squeal. You'll just have to wait a bit.