Gigantic, life-sucking storms that caught treasured friends to feed itself. Not even the brightest minds could stop this darkness from spreading. But one everyday guy with his pet pig and four friends did.

A crazed bully turned a city imprisoned by a void into a death trap of monsters. Raining misery on his command. Yet again, the same man rose up and liberated the innocents from their torture in the sky.

Zombies surrounded a killer mansion, filled with people tearing each other apart trying to protect themselves. A murderer that slowly picked off the souls from the shadows. And even though his friend was blamed, this man uncovered the real truth.

Control, a huge robot that controlled every living creature in an entire world. Complete computerization over nature itself. This agent made useful two friends of the same guy, and still he managed to shut down the computer.

Deceitful masters of building that enslavened unsuspecting people from their homes to toil for them. To kill each other for their entertainment and then to be sent into the sweltering heat to mine for them. Even though his friends would have been dragged into a terrible fate if he faltered, this hero was able to out trick and out perform the conniving overlords.

This hero, Jesse, was the leader of the Order of the Stone, the most revered group of outstanding people. People all throughout the worlds look up to him, endlessly grateful for what he has done for them. Many respected him, thinking him to be a fearless warrior impervious to whatever comes his way.

However, they were wrong. For this hero does have a fear. A heart-stopping nauseating fear that he has kept a secret in his head for many years.

Jesse, the hero of the worlds, was scared of squids.

None of his closest friends knew this, and Jesse wanted to keep it that way. He was utterly embarrased by the fact he goes squimish at the mere thought of the slippery tentacled cephalopod.

And how this fear became to be is even more of an embarrassment to the green-eyed legend. Something he desperately doesn't want anyone to know about. But unfortunately for Jesse, he really does have bad luck.

~~~~

It was a sunny summer's day, with a slight breeze ruffling the trees. Petra, who couldn't stand to be stuck inside on a day like this, dragged the entire Order and Ivor out for her 'surprise'. And while they were all happy to enjoy the weather, some of them were tad bit grumpy that they didn't know where they were walking to.

"PETRA! MY FEET ARE SORE! Please tell me we are close to this mysterious destination of yours?"

The warrior only groaned and waved her arms wildly in frustration. "Ivor, for the tenth time, we get there when we get there. Your complaining won't get us there faster."

"Yes, but it makes me FEEL so better. You know how bad my knees are."

Another member raised his blond head to the potion master, a beamused expression on his face. "Bad knees huh? You ran awfully agile and gracefully away from me when you stole my journal."

Ivor threw his hands in the air. "UNFAIR! Why is suddenly everyone picking on me!? I have done nothing!"

Petra grinned, her eyes sparkling at the opportunity to tease. "Nothing you say? I bet we can come up with a LIST of the things you've done that justifies us picking on you."

"Well fine then." Ivor puffed out his chest, prideful as ever. "Why don't you?"

All at once the younger members smiled, their lips curling up mischievously. Particularly the big man, who's eyes seem to light up madly. And the old man's ego deflated rapidly; his face has gone completely pale.

The blonde one, Lukas, clapped, starting Ivor's misery. "To begin with, our first encounter with you was one of revenge. Before we even knew your name you managed to get all of us furious at you."

The warrior smiled at Ivor, with eyes so cold that they made his bread shivered. "Yeah, you scammed me. Consider yourself lucky that we needed you alive to defeat the Wither Storm."

The redstone mechanic snapped her fingers, she too was going to take a jab at Ivor. "Not to mention you WERE the one the unleashed that thing in the first place."

"And then," A gruff deep voice spoke, the griever of the bunch. "You go and insult us over and over before you realized you needed our awesomeness to clean up your mess."

"OKAY! OKAY!" Ivor surrendered, clearly not wanting to have to endure anymore of this. "I made a lot of mistakes about the Wither Storm. Can we all please just move past that?"

"With pleasure Ivor." The warrior took a deep breath and opened her mouth. "How about the time you just decided to pour lava in the middle of the street without taking any precautions first and then proceeded to insult the people who were concerned about their safety?"

The griever laughed, his booming voice startling the engineer. "Oh man that's still such an epic build! Although it was much better before we had to make it safe."

"Axel!" The engineer scowled and elbowed the big guy. "We don't support endangering our citizens."

"Oh, right... sorry Olivia." Axel rubbed the back of his head, somehow able to look sheepish for his big size.

"Anyway," Lukas spoke up again. "At Sky City you wanted to steal Benedict, the one chicken they depended on for survival."

"That was the whole point of the adventure to begin with! I was just kinda crabby we had to let it go."

Lukas rolled his eyes. "If that's your kinda crabby, then I do not want to see your raging fury."

"Not too mention, you fell head over heels for an Old Builder." Petra's sly grin became a full blown evil smile, taking much joy from Ivor's suffering.

Olivia and Axel, who have only briefly heard this, turned to Ivor, excitement all over their faces. They too had evil smiles etched into their lips. The potion master never had chance to escape this onslaught of teasing from the youthful adults.

"Tha- Why is THAT a reason to make fun of me?!" Ivor was fuming, but the only thing he could do was scowl and shout.

Lukas and Petra didn't say anything, they just waited until the old man would snap and try to justify himself. They simply looked at him with arched eyebrows, taunting Ivor to continue. And he just couldn't take it.

"I mean, she's just such a fascinating woman! Who else could have built something like P.A.M.A.? Granted, it was evil... but so was my creation. Now we can't judge each based on that."

"Uh huh, sure Ivor." Axel grinned, he loved taking a slight poke to the bear. It was just enough to keep it frustrated.

"It's true!! She's somehow blunt, yet possesses an aura of mystery. Two traits that seemingly counteract each other. And she still pulls it off! It's incredibly intriguing and cryptic, which makes her the most complex woman I know."

"AHEM!"

Petra crossed her arms and scowled at Ivor. Olivia, usually the most docile of the group, even shot him an icy glare. Unfortunately for Ivor, he didn't realize that all women were complex. And calling one woman the most complex, any other girl could easily take insult that they are simple and dumb. But in this case, neither girl could stop the slight curl in their lips.

Lukas and Axel caught on to this rather quickly, and both hide their grins. Ivor, unfortunately for him, didn't. And he was caught in the condrum of lying to appease the women before him or staying true to the woman who stole his heart.

Ivor squirmed and rubbed his neck. "Uh... well, I don't- that doesn't mean... oh man, uhhhhh..."

To the stuttering old fool's surprise, they all just burst out laughing. Manic laughter that filled the entire forest. Axel was stumbling, only barely able to keep himself upright. Lukas and Petra were bright red, holding onto stomachs. Olivia was wiping tears from her eyes every couple of seconds. All four of kids whizzed, unable to properly breath.

"Ivor..." Petra panted. "We don't even need to tease you, you just did it yourself!"

With that, the four's laughter sparked back into hysterical howling. The whole group stopped walking now, four unable to walk anyway and one frozen in utter humiliation. The prideful old man went pale when he realized he was out done by the kids. His entire countenance deflated, making the kids laugh even harder.

And even the sixth, who has remained entirely silent thus far, chuckled lightly under his breath.

It's not that this person was shy or awkward around these people, far from it. In fact, there wasn't any obvious reason why he was keeping to himself today. The day beautiful and promising happy times. He loved that his friends were relaxing and having fun. He even had a smile on his face throughout all of the teasing.

The real reason for his lack of energy was because of his gut. He had this terrible gut feeling, that didn't go away no matter what he did, that something bad was going to happen to him. Not anyone else, or he would be in leader mode, but just a qualm in his stomach that refused to leave. And because of that, he simply didn't feel like talking.

After all, when it's practically his job to do what others can't, he doesn't like others knowing that he has off moments too.

Eventually, his friends wiped the last of their tears and continued walking again. Ivor was muttering under his breath, but he knew better than to let the others hear it. Everyone else, besides Jesse, was taking deep breaths with huge smiles still on their faces.

Petra lightly elbowed Ivor. "Would you like us to continue the list or-"

"NO!! No, no, no, do NOT continue that list!" Ivor's finger snapped up to the sky, and he glared at the warrior.

Axel however, still wanted to pick on Ivor just a little bit more. "What was that Ivor? You want us to continue? Well okay then..."

"NO!" Ivor whipped around to the griever, his bread swaying. "That is NOT what I said!"

Lukas chuckled, and Ivor sent him a glare too. Not that it did much. The more Ivor got furious at them, the more they wanted to laugh. Too bad Jesse didn't join in. As much as he can build people up, he has also become the master of teasing.

Olivia was the first to decide to stop making fun of Ivor. She was still smiling, but she noticed a few things now that she wasn't caught up in her excitement. Like how sore feet were, how far the sun has moved since when they started, and the forest they were in as now become a jungle.

"Hey Petra is this a camping trip or something? I didn't bring any gear and if we don't get there soon we won't have enough time to get back to Beacontown."

The stubborn redhead just waved Olivia's concerns off, in too good a mood to make fun of her too. "Relax Olivia, we're super close."

Ivor puffed up. "OH I see... you'll answer HER but not ME! Why that so sexist Pe-"

"Put a sock in it, Olivia doesn't annoy me as much as you do." Ivor grumbled to himself; it is kinda hard to counter that fact.

Axel though was getting hungry, but didn't to ask stop to for risk of Petra's wrath. "How close is really close? Like before lunch or.... what?"

"Before- you know what?" Petra sighed, not wanting to hear about their complaints when they were so close to her destination. "All of you count to one hundred, we should be there by then."

Jesse briefly shook his head at them, but became sad when their banter died down. Their friendly teasing gave Jesse the perfect outlet to ignore his uneasiness. But now that it stopped, that wiggly worm of worry in his stomach hogged his attention and sent his thoughts down spiraling.

Oh man, I hope she isn't taking us to a ravine. So many bad things could happen. Axel could push someone down, Ivor might refuse to go down, Olivia will probably get sad about it. Not too mention we can't find lunch in some caves.

He quietly sighed, trying to instead focus on the jungle around him. Jesse starts to look for melons, although only half-heartedly. His thoughts relentlessly swirl around, a whirlpool of worry forming in his head.

"Okay, we're here!" Petra skips of the others and soon vanished into the growth. Missing the 'about time' that Ivor muttered a bit too loudly.

The others stepped into the foliage where Petra disappeared in and found the jungle didn't continue. Instead, just a clearing of grass overlooking a lake. Petra was already standing at the edge, smiling wide.

"Well Petra," Lukas looked over the edge, and quickly scooted back. "I should've known you would've dragged us to go cliff diving on a day like this."

"Oh come on! It'll be fun! Who wants to go first?" Lukas just looked at her horrified. Petra didn't know that ever since Lukas got pushed into what he thought was a void the writer has been very wary of places high up.

And Jesse realized it would be a good time to intervene when Petra gave Lukas a devious grin. "How about we eat first? It wouldn't be any fun if we played while we're all still tired."

That's when Jesse realized he hasn't spoken all day. His voice was a bit dry and crackled slightly he spoke. Normally, he could always keep his emotions from seeping into his voice. But this time there was a small hint of worry in his words.

"Woah Jesse," Olivia was the first to recover from shock. "You don't sound too good."

Petra's face fell and she groaned. "Jes-se, why couldn't you tell me you were sick before we left? Now it won't be as much fun..."

Jesse, slightly relieved they misjudge his feelings, coughed a bit. Partly from surprise and mostly to clear his throat so he no longer sounded like a sick pig. However, to everyone else it was confirmation that Jesse's sick.

Lukas, who's also a bit happy that he's no longer about to be throw off a cliff, rushed to Jesse's side, concern laced in his voice. "Is this why you weren't talking at all on the way here?"

"No, guys you got it all wrong." Jesse was relieved he sounded normal again, and yet kicking himself for not realizing that Lukas would've noticed his silence. Lukas ALWAYS notices these things.

Axel crossed his arms. "Doesn't look wrong to me dude, you should just take it easy."

"Hungry!" The idea burst out of Jesse's mouth. "I forgot to eat breakfast before leaving and now I'm just really hungry. I'm not sick, I just kinda sound like it."

While Jesse did want to keep rambling on, he stopped himself. It's obvious to tell someone's nervous and lying when they don't know when to stop talking. But his friends believed it, all of them relaxing and nodding a bit.

"I saw some melons! We could have melons!" And before anyone could say anything, Ivor rushed back into the jungle.

Both of Olivia's eyebrows were raised. "How did he notice that while we were teasing him?"

Jesse shrugged, as he got the feeling he was now excepted to talk more. "Ivor's Ivor. Weird, loud, and has a lot of tricks up his sleeves."

"No truer words have been said." Petra looked up, and then her face lit up. "Hey look! We could use the vines to swing into the lake."

"...great..." Lukas crossed his arms and made himself seem smaller. And while Jesse knew why, Lukas certainly didn't want Ivor to know after he just made fun of him.

Suddenly, that worm of worry in Jesse's stomach turned into galloping horse in his heart. And while he didn't consciously know what the problem was, he didn't need to. Once you go through the stuff Jesse has, you start to rely more and more on your gut instinct.

Yet Jesse, being the way too nice of a person he his, didn't want to ruin everyone's fun. So he just subtlety turned to the lake, appearing as if he was admiring it. When in reality he was putting his mask on and didn't want his friends to see.

"I'm BACK!" The Order all turned to Ivor, who was strutting pridefully and placed bunches of melons on the ground. "And I have a plethora of melons!"

Axel immediately swooped down and grabbed almost a third of the pile. Olivia, after rolling her eyes, reached down and picked up only a couple. Petra also took a big chunk, but Lukas grabbed just a few. Ivor didn't take any, so Jesse assumed he already had some before he took the rest.

Everyone started to eat, but Jesse felt sick with every bite he took. He had absolutely no appetite at all and he didn't really miss breakfast this morning. Yet everyone would think he's sick again, so Jesse ate his as fast as possible and ignored the moans his stomach made.

The moment Petra took her last bite, she jumped up and started towards a tree. But before she could start to climb, Lukas cleared his throat.

"You should probably take off your armor Petra. Remember what happened when we took our first steps into that ocean world."

Ivor cringed, he hated that world the most. "More like first swim."

Jesse looked up Petra, who was hesitating. "Petra... you wouldn't want to get that close to drowning and losing Miss Butter again, would you?"

"Fine." The stubborn redhead finally relents can jumps down. She takes off her armor in almost a blink of an eye and was climbing the tree again.

"You all better be taking off your armor too!" Petra got to the top, and grabbed a sturdy vine. "Well, except Ivor. He can survive with it on."

With that, the warrior released a war cry and pushed off of the tree. She gracefully swung through the air, and did a flip before diving into the water. Her head popped out of the surface and gesture to the others to follow.

Ivor, who definitely didn't want to jump into a freezing lake for fun, just leaned over the side and glared down on Petra. "SHOW OFF!"

And he would have stood back up properly had Axel not shoved him off. And he didn't fall as gracefully as Petra. Instead, he flailed and yelled loudly all... the... way... down...

"Axel!" Olivia, although sounding stern, was chuckling a bit.

Axel just innocently shrugged. "What? How could I not when he was leaning over the edge like that? He was basically asking for it."

After that, Axel rushed over to the tree and started to climb. He didn't even need to take off any armor. He just grabbed a vine and started to swing, bellowing at the top of his lungs. And because he didn't test the vine first, it snapped right before his release.

The big griever then panicky wailed, very similar to how Olivia might have, and thrashed around in the air. Thankfully, he wasn't anywhere near the cliff. However Axel totally landed in the water in a belly flop, his body slowly sinking into water.

"Oh man, he going to feel that one." Olivia backed off from the cliff face and began to take off her armor. Jesse and Lukas shared a surprised glance, neither thought Olivia would actually want to do this.

Olivia noticed the look. "Hey, I'm not swinging off of any vine, but if Axel jumped in then so am I!" At once the mechanic sprinted at the cliff face, whopping excitedly as she jumped into the air.

The two boys left standing sighed, neither one wanting to jump in but for two entirely different reasons. However they both started to take off their armor, Lukas grumpily muttering to himself.

He looked over at the edge, before scooting back hesitantly. Jesse sighed, deciding to comfort him even though his own instincts were screaming at him not to jump.

"Come on Lukas, you know you're never going to live it down if you don't jump."

"I know, it's just that..." Lukas's shoulders dropped, fear breaking across his face. "I can't help but keep thinking about.... y'know how terrible it was to be thrown into a void."

"Yes, getting pushed into a void sucks... a lot." Jesse pats Lukas on the back. "But this time, you're willingly jumping towards your friends. And you can see the bottom from here."

Lukas nervously chuckled, before gulping at the sight of the cliff again. He took a few deep breaths, and started to run at the cliff. He jumped off, but Jesse could see that he had his eyes squeezed shut. Jesse didn't blame him, looking at what terrifies you is pretty dang hard to do.

Jesse, now alone at the top, couldn't hear anything else except the pounding of his racing heart. He broke out into a nervous sweat as he slowly started to climb the tree. Jesse wished and wished he could just jump of the cliff, but he's suppose to be fearless. All of his friends would be shocked if he didn't and Petra nor Axel would let him hear the end of it.

At the top, he grabbed a vine and every cell inside of him was screaming at him to let go. As Jesse tested the vine, he kept telling himself that if something dangerous was in the water then he would be hearing some kind of commotion. But no screams of terror or any sort of commotion came from the water.

So he pushed off the tree, and the sirens in his head wailed at him to look behind him. Time was suspended as Jesse turned his head and saw a colorful little parrot. Despite Jesse's rapid heartbeat, he pales as he helplessly watched the innocent bird bend down and clip the vine.

And that's the moment when Jesse bitterly realized he should've listened to his instincts.

Unlike Axel, who's vine snapped at the end of his swing, Jesse's hasn't started on his upward swing. The vine tangled onto him, filling his sight with only the green rope. Jesse's many priority was to move the stuff so he could see, ending up tangling it more in his arms.

But before he could, Jesse crashed into ground. The vines thankfully cushioned his fall enough to wear he didn't break anything, but he did manage to hit his head hard enough for everything to stall. He couldn't even feel his newly bruised ribs or the melon violently slamming into his stomach.

Unfortunately for Jesse, he as way too much bad luck for it to just end there.

Unable to stop his momentum, Jesse tumbled off the cliff. Although he was conscious, everything was one big confusing blur. Blue and green, shouts and wind, a throb in his chest and dead weights somehow connected to him.

Jesse felt bitter cold sting all over him, and he sharply inhaled. Only for water to swarm into his lungs. Purely on impulse, Jesse coughed. He coughed and coughed, not getting any water out and only pushing more and more air out.

However, through everything, Jesse finally realized he was sinking.

His mind jolted awake; groggy, confused, and disorientated, but trying to do something none the less. However, all it could do in its fuzzy state was send urgent impulses to swim. But all that ended up happening was Jesse's limbs wildly thrashing around, too uncoordinated and tangled up to actually do anything.

In fact, this only served to push himself deeper into the lake. He kicked Petra right in the chest, who was only trying to grab onto him to pull him up. And she watched in horror as Jesse propelled himself farther and farther away from her.

And it was at this point when Jesse felt his own body slipping away from him. All he could feel was the cold. He couldn't think nor could understand that he was dying, all he knew was this icy darkness pulling him deeper and deeper.

But miraculously, something managed to penetrate his thoughts and get him to stir. It wasn't Petra able to grab him, by now she had to go back up for air. It wasn't being able to breath again. It was six slimy tentacles wrapping around his head.

A squid was trying to eat his hair.

Not even drowning could do it, but this squid managed to fire up every single cell in Jesse's body through pure terror.

Jesse finally woke up and got his head straight. Or at least he figured out what way was up. His limbs snapped into coordination and pushed himself up, the vines only slowing him slightly. Jesse, in this moment of tremendous fright, never even realized how oxygen deprived his muscles. All he cared about was getting to the surface so he could pry this squid off.

His hands were clawing at the water and his feet furiously kicking up a storm below him. If Jesse was any weaker he would not have had enough working muscles left to do this. Thankfully though, Jesse's body knew how to fight, even if his mind momentarily forgot about the peril he's in.

He broke the surface, his lungs immediately trying to cough out the water. While he wanted to scream, all he ended up doing was gurgling. And the squid on top of him only squeezed itself tighter on him as it began to panic.

Jesse didn't know what to do, and his body started to spasm. During his uncontrollable flailing, he wacked every one of his friends who were trying to help him. The squid, who was feeling very scared and threatened too, inked on Jesse's head.

Thick black inky splattered all over Jesse's face, and he couldn't take it. Jesse, the leader of the Order of the Stone, froze. All because a squid that latched onto him, while he was drowning, and inked on him.

But Jesse didn't have the mental capacity to feel pathetic.

Thankfully, his brain has managed to get enough oxygen to activate Jesse's self-perseveration instinct. And Jesse has fine tuned this instinct by having to think very quickly and very logically while having to be extremely aware of his surroundings in order to survive.

In a loosely coordinated fashion, Jesse's muscles managed to propel him to shore. Not that he even cared about that during the moment, his thoughts are frozen to the fact the gooey vile liquid is going to seep into his skin and never come out and he'll have the worse tattoo ever.

His feet scraped against the bottom of the shore and his legs dragged Jesse onto the ground before collapsing. As amazing as Jesse's body is, withstanding days without rest and food, it can only go so far without oxygen.

But Jesse's thoughts managed to accept, no matter how revolting, that there is ink staining his entire head. So Jesse brought his burning and weary arms up and pried off the squid's tentacles one at a time.

It was horrid for Jesse to actually reach out and touch the squishy sea creature, he was even groaning in misery every time he had to wrapped his fingers around the disgusting thing. Eventually though, the squid unraveled and started to drag itself back to the water. The poor thing suffocating in the air.

Jesse's friends have also deemed it safe to approach their leader again, a few of them will be sprouting bruises the next day. Olivia, a tad bit sorry for the squid, picked it up and put it back into the lake.

Yet Jesse didn't even have the physical capacity to care. There was still way too much water in his lungs, making every breath in and out burn. Jesse will probably have to be carried on the way back, as he just over exerted every muscle he had while they were oxygen deprived. Not too mention he has bruised most of the bones in his rib cage and most likely got a few other injuries as well.

And Jesse's mental capacity to care was thrown out the window. Not only was Jesse trying to do things on a oxygen deprived brain, but then he got relentlessly emotionally shot at by the squid. As of right now, all he can do is blubber foolishly until his body repairs itself.

The five certainly didn't know what to think of the situation. Was Jesse alright? How hard did he hit his head? Did he get any spine injuries? Was it safe to move him? The friends just glanced at each other, all of them wishing Jesse was able to speak.

Cautiously, Olivia untangled the rest of the vine from Jesse. Jesse didn't even react, or acknowledge her presence at all.

Olivia bit her bottom lip. "I think we should move him... he probably won't want to be anywhere near the lake when he wakes up."

"Hmmm...." Lukas crouched down in front of Jesse's head and very gently lifted it up. "No, he's awake, at least partially. If Jesse fainted from lack of oxygen, then he would be completely limp."

"Well, don't you have a potion to help him Ivor?" Axel squirmed a few blocks off, the big guy knew that this wasn't his type of situation he should handle.

"Not anything useful right now, any good ones fell out when someone pushed me." Ivor glared at Axel, but it soon died under the massive wave of concern flooding Ivor's head.

Olivia moved and now bent down next to Lukas. "Y'know, I think the only reason why he's even this much awake is so his body can keep himself alive. I bet he'll be aware again if something happened, but now he's basically asleep."

"Well then," Petra moved over to Jesse's legs. "Let's move him. If Jesse starts to feel threatened by our movements then we'll just put him down."

The other friends hesitantly glanced at each other. While none of them thought it would be best to keep Jesse on a sandy slope, a few were uneasy about moving him in such a fragile state. But none of them were comfortable to be so close by the lake now.

So everyone takes a limb, with Axel making sure they have a clear path up. Olivia though was wrong; Jesse was awake. He couldn't exactly hear them, but he definitely felt them pick him up. Which did bother a lot of sore parts, yet Jesse was too much of an emotional wreck to try and do anything about it.

The Order of the Stone managed to get their leader and friend back to the cliff. The only place close by that was flat and wasn't covered by some sort of bush or plant. They very carefully set him down, but were confused on what to do next.

Axel dashed off to find some food for Jesse when he wakes up. Ivor went back down to the lake to get Jesse some water. But Petra, Olivia, and Lukas were just nervously fretting over Jesse, wanting to help and having no idea how to.

And they all completely panicked when Jesse started to cough. The water in Jesse's lungs just had to go, it was ruining his body's ability to heal. The only way a semi-conscious person knows how to get water out is to cough. A lot.

Lukas was the first to figure out what was happening, and quickly rolled Jesse on his side. Almost immediately, a thin drizzle of water drooled out of Jesse's mouth. The coughing didn't go away, but it lightened considerably.

The three let out a massive sigh all at once. It was unspoken, but they all knew that they really didn't know what they were doing. They only thing they were doing was hoping and praying that Jesse would somehow wake up and be fine.

Jesse knew that too, even he could feel the hopelessness floating in the air. However, what he should have done is just go to sleep. Allow his body to get the rest it quite frankly needs. But he wouldn't be Jesse if he didn't have a strong, stubborn, and selfless will to help other people.

So he crawled past the jitters left by the accursed squid. He dragged his mind awake through all of misery and pain and exhaustion just so he could move with what extremely little energy he had.

Somehow Jesse managed to peel open his eyes. Unfortunately for him, being in that almost asleep state of mind has numbed all of the pain inflicted on his body. Now awake, Jesse regained the ability to feel pain again. Yet Jesse eyes didn't get stung by the sun. Nope, his eyes burned because there was still a bunch of squid ink in there blinding him.

"HIS EYES! WE NEED TO WASH OFF HIS EYES!" Jesse would have laughed to hear Olivia so crazy loud, but he was more concerned about other things at the moment.

Unknown to Jesse though, Ivor just walked into the clearing. Before he could utter a word of protest, Petra plucked the water bottles right from his hands. Silently, Lukas reached down and forced Jesse's eyes to stay open.

That stung, a lot, and Jesse just wanted to close his eyes again. He was crying already, but the tears weren't enough to get the black substance out. Jesse also definitely couldn't see Petra opening the water bottle.

But he sure did know when she dumped it on him, the water cascading onto his poor little eyeballs. To Jesse, the water felt like liquid fire. Burning absolutely everything that it touched. However, when the flood stopped, the ink was removed completely from Jesse's eyes. They now felt incredibly itching, but much better than what they just were.

Jesse took a few deep breaths, starting to regret his decision. He wasn't able to move, he could feel all the pain, and now he's painfully aware of what a fool he was just now. Yet there isn't anything he could do now to change it, so he better just suck up and deal with it.

After a few moments of trying to steady himself, Jesse opened his eyes again. To see all five of his friends were starring down at him. A small yelp escaped his lips, but his voice was scratchy and dry. It sounded more like a dying dog than any human noise.

Without a word, Ivor opened another bottle of water and Lukas helped him sit up. And while Jesse really appreciated their concern, he really did, but thought it was a waste to give it to someone as pathetic as him.

What kind of legend gets sacred senseless by a normal, totally un-dangerous, squid?

So when they tried to get him to drink, Jesse kept his lips sealed. Much to the shock of the friends. They all shared a look, as if they could figure out what to do in the other's eyes.

"Jesse." The warrior was the first to regain her wits. "You have to drink, there's no reason not to."

But Jesse, being stubborn, shook his head and tried to sit up on his own. The moment he tried to use his weary muscles and force his bruised bones to support him, he collapsed. Ending up feeling even more worthless than before.

Jesse's mask has held strong through numerous heart shattering events. Rueben's death, Petra tearing him down in the Portal Hallway, seeing Axel and Olivia completely in the grasp of a madman drunk on power.

Yet he just couldn't hold it up anymore. It was so tiring and soaked up so much energy that was desperately needed elsewhere. Besides, Jesse has the firm belief that somehow they all knew that he went absolutely bonkers simply because of a squid.

Out of dry and raspy mouth, Jesse uttered one small little word.

"Why?"

This small little word sent the most reverend and strongest people throughout the worlds completely pale. None of them moved, totally frozen in place as their minds refused to process to the meaning of that word. They all wanted to know and didn't at the same time what caused Jesse to say such a word.

"Uhh Jesse...?" The mechanic spoke first, although very cautious with her words. "Just please drink some water and get some rest, okay?"

"No..." Despite his word, Jesse could feel exhaustion pulling back into the depths of darkness. But Jesse gathered the last of his strength, wanting to make one more request from his friends before he went under.

"Please... I don't..." Jesse's eyes fluttered shut, and his body went limp in Lukas's grasp. But after a few deep breaths, Jesse pulled himself together for a few seconds to finish.

"...deserve it..."

And Jesse fell unconscious as he lost the strength to continue the fight against the darkness. Leaving all of his friends in utterly stunned.

****

6240 words. Wow. Are you still here?

I think I might need to justify this one a bit, since, y'know, it's incredibly long.

First off, the change in writing style. When I first started writing, third-person past present is how I wrote all my stories. But I labeled all my stories bad in my mind (I started in almost 4th grade) and couldn't see any improvement in my abilities because of that.

So I made the switch, and it was rough at first, but it soon became natural for me. Then I read it and was like "OH MY GOSH, this actually isn't terrible". Now I think I've grown enough to possibly return to this style for some future stories.

And please tell me if this is not actually all that good because I wouldn't want to ruin a story just because I couldn't write the style correctly.

But because of the switch, I didn't really know how to set things up the right way so I might have over did it a bit. Plus, when I get nervous about quality, I go into huge amounts of detail then just cut out the bad parts and still have a lengthy story left.

Second, this was meant to be a light-hearted oneshot of how Jesse has a fear of squids ever since he got one stuck on his head in Episode 7. And short, since I wanted to go to bed early after camping.

Clearly that did not happen.

I was typing it and was like, slapped in the face by huge amounts of inspiration! Tiredness? Poof! My fingers were absolutely flying about mid-way through this oneshot. Suddenly the squid plot died down a bit, and a more darker theme rose up.

*Cough* Ending *Cough*

Perhaps I will do a nice oneshot like that, but this isn't that anymore. Once the idea came to me, I wanted to dive into it deeper. (hehe, dive) But since I really needed to end this one, (have you ever heard of a 6 thousand word oneshot before?) and there was one prompt I was struggling to find an idea for...

Well, it's like the fates have aligned.

If you managed to stay through to the end, CONGRADULATIONS! I'm incredibly grateful for your support.

So, see you tomorrow for Storm! Which might be a little later as well... I'm definitely sleeping in.

(And I promise it's shorter.)