(Squeal to Intruder!)

"Who is she?"

I sigh, forcing my brain to move away from the really nice thought of food to who the thief is. Breakfast, I just wanted, and still do, breakfast. Is that really so much to ask for before something happens?

"I thought you were suppose to be smart Lukas." Petra has her arms crossed, clearly not impressed. And if they get into a fight I won't be impressed with either of them. "It's obviously Cassie Rose, how could you have not seen that?"

Lukas huffs, raising an eyebrow. "I'm sorry, but I was working under the impression she was dead. Y'know, the whole stranded above a pit of endermites just kinda left me the sense she didn't exactly make it."

Petra shrugs, and my gut, which is still hungry, tells me Petra is right. "Who else would want the Atlas and flint and steel? Steals from us and goes home, anyone else would just ask or something."

Lukas looks away, clearly it's impossible for him to believe Petra if he continues to think that Cassie is dead. So I'll convince him that the thief is Cassie, unless something else pops up and points to a completely new person, and then hopefully I'll finally be able to eat something.

"Lukas, Petra's making a lot of sense. Besides, it's not like we saw Cassie die. She could have figured a way off or something happened, it's not completely impossible."

"It's pretty implausible though." 

I shrug, internally groaning that this isn't over yet and I still haven't eaten. "Look, if you can create an argument for a completely different person, go right ahead. For now, I'm going to say Cassie and go have breakfast."

Petra snorts as I turn to go to the kitchen. "Okay then Axel the second, enjoy your breakfast."

Knowing I shouldn't, knowing that it really isn't a good idea, I snap back around to Petra. "Hey! After sprinting right out of town and then having a small swordfight really works up an appetite. And it's not like I ate beforehand or anything."

Petra grins at me as I cock an eyebrow at her, I have completely fallen into this well of teasing. I'm willingly denying myself food. "So the Slayer of the Witherstorm can't go a few hours without having his breakfast. How can you even stand?"

"You're one to speak." My gut grumbles at me, but I will eventually eat. Just after I'm done messing with Petra. "You were too stubborn to eat potatoes as a loner even though sometimes that meant not eating anything else."

"At least I could still function without one meal though, oh mighty Savior of Sky City."

I hear Lukas chuckle off to the side, and I send a glare at him before turning back to Petra. "I would like to try and see you fight without Miss Butter, I bet you'd be as helpless as a newborn without your prized deadly weapon."

She smirks as she crosses her arms. "Touché, although even as a newborn I could still kick your butt."

"Why you-"

"Jesse!" Snorting at Petra, I turn to Olivia and Axel. Who are both wearing slightly concerned faces. Well Olivia is, Axel just has this confused vibe to him.

"Is something wrong guys?" My stomach groans, almost as chastising me for not getting food earlier. Before I could convinced myself I'm about to eat, Olivia nods. Stupid teasing, I would have at least eaten something if I didn't tease Petra.

"It's the prisoner, she's screeching like some manic down there. You can hear just by walking by." Olivia rubs her neck, stress straining all of her words. "It's only been a few minutes and already so many people have complained about her.

"Yeah dude, and it's pretty nasty. This and that about how we're so cruel and how terribly unjust we are and stuff like that. I don't even think she's stopping to breathe."

I groan, I guess breakfast will be pushed off for a bit longer then. "Let's go have a little talk to our little thief then. And Axel, you have full permission to rummage through Ivor's stuff until you find a healing potion."

Axel smiles and everyone else goes to walk out the door when I something else pops into my mind. "Oh and Axel, grab some stone. Stacks of the stuff."

"Uhh... yeah, sure dude." I don't bother addressing his confusion, admittedly grumpy on my empty stomach, and walk out with the others.

But I guess Lukas is curious about it. "Why do you need stone Jesse?"

"Well I don't need stone." I gesture with my arms, a buzz of tiredness surrounding my head. "Cobblestone works or even wood. Maybe quartz, dirt, clay, sandstone, all of that stuff works too."

"Okay, that's great and all," I can practically feel his eye roll right now. "But what's its purpose? Why do you want so many blocks in the first place."

Shrugging, my ears pick faint wails about how insufferable the Order of the Stone is. "I'm assuming that Cassie hates us-"

"Assumption correct."

"-and won't stop screeching despite anything we say. So with the blocks we can at least muffle her."

"Whoa." Olivia's eyebrows are completely shot up when I turn to her. "You want to bury her down there? That's pretty... hardcore."

Now it's my turn to roll my eyes. "No, I'm not going to do that to her. Just maybe another layer over where the entrance and stuff, maybe block the door lightly. But I want people here to actually be able to sleep and not listen to..."

I go silent as Cassie screeches about how willing we are to let people suffer, how awful we are to anyone who won't praise us.

"That."

The others nod and I brace my nose for the smell before walking down into the prisons. My stomach twists more painfully than my nose does, the twist that much more uncomfortable when I haven't eaten anything except a light dinner over fifteen hours ago. I really do need to get something to eat.

We all sigh as the screams get so loud, the insults echoing off of the stone walls. They aren't true, they just aren't. But hearing them nonetheless is a bit disheartening. I generally try to avoid making people this mad at me.

Cassie glances at us once as we walk into view, before ripping apart her lungs to continue bellowing her great hate at us. I sigh, but Petra growls. She pulls out her sword, striking the metals bars.

A loud ding goes off, the ringing resonating for a few moments. Thankfully though, it gets Cassie to shut up. I would rather take ringing than hearing everything I try to fight for totally wrong and that I'm a horrible person.

"Brute force to get what you want, not at all surprised by that."

I roll my eyes, deciding to give her at least her one chance before I lose all patience with her. If she waited one more hour to steal from us, I might have been more patient. However, my stomach is still lacking breakfast. So little patience until then.

"Look, Cassie, you tried to steal from us-"

"Simply so I can get back home."

"-you didn't stand down-"

"Like you were going to let me go."

"-and now you're disturbing our citizens-"

"Oh boo-"

"And I swear if you interrupt me one more time I'll make this room reek even more." I rub my face, way too exhausted for only getting up awhile ago. "Why can't you understand that you're making everything worse for you?"

"Maybe it's because I don't have anything else to lose anymore! Ever think of that you worthless heroes!"

Me and Lukas share a look, my mind beginning to relate to Cassie's situation a bit more. Petra however grunts, pointing the tip of her blade at Cassie.

"Since us 'worthless heroes' are actually planning on giving you a health potion, perhaps I should make sure we get the most out of that potion after not having any respect whatsoever!"

Olivia gently grabs Petra's shoulder, the glare whipping to her before softening. Muttering, my assumption is curses, she sheathes her sword. Glaring right back at Cassie once she looks at her again.

I try to reach out to her again, my stomach finally deciding not to be so grumpy and allowing me to think properly again. "Cassie, we understand that drive to get back home. We understand what you're willing to go through to do that. But you're making things harder for yourself. If you just asked us-"

"And you would've let me used it? Wake up Jesse, you're not the hero you think you are. You wouldn't have let a murderer like me use one of your precious treasures."

Lukas leans towards me, and his whisper even faint to me. "She has a point, I doubt we would have just let her."

"Yes, we wouldn't have just handed you the Atlas." I sigh, my stomach is giving me grief again. Although this time it's more of a tightness than an emptiness. "But we would have accompanied you through the worlds. No, we wouldn't have let you touch our stuff but it would still work fine for you."

Cassie glares at me, such dull eyes leaking hatred. "So just like that you would've forgotten everything that happened at my mansion?"

Petra snorts and even Lukas scowls softly, both have pretty good reasons to hate everything that happened inside there. Olivia doesn't react though as passionately, I suppose this conversation is a bit weird for her. She's the only here that wasn't at that mansion.

"No...?" My voice is so strained, my stomach twisting inside of me now. I get it, I understand the helplessness of not being able to get back home and that willingness to do anything at all in order to get rid of that. I get it, Hadrian sure did teach me that the cost to go home was a huge risk one had to take.

I glance at Olivia, hoping she has some idea that would be needed right about now. Like some third party solution that would make everyone happy and would get rid of this gut wrenching guilt inside of me.

Olivia scratches her neck, hesitant with her words. "We would, uh... inform the people in your world what you have done. Yeah, so that way you would still pay for your crimes."

Petra scoffs, and my stomach contorts into itself. "They wouldn't understand the extent of what she did, it wouldn't be fair."

"Since it was so fair for me to get stuck in that world in the first place."

I look away, not sure what to say at all. I preferably like Olivia's idea, Cassie's people should determine the extent of what she did. Not too mention she might be more willing to cooperate with people she knows.

Then again, she does have to pay for attempted theft and attempting to injure me while trying to get away from that. So would it be best just to have her in here for a couple of weeks, while we go to her home world and explain to the people there what she's done. That should work.

"Hey Jesse! I got that stuff!" I smile at Axel's approach, thankful for something to turn my attention onto. "Do you-"

I swipe the healing potion right as he takes it out. "Just keep the other stuff on you for now, until we need it."

Reaching through the bars, I hold out the healing potion to Cassie. "Here you go, that'll fix up your wounds."

My very tight and clenched gut does not feel any better when I hear Petra mutter, "It's quite frankly more than you deserve."

Cassie doesn't take the potion though, she just looks at it before starring at me again. The hate out of her eyes now and my mind scrambling trying to figure her out again. She is seriously becoming one of the more complicated woman I've met. Anger and now sudden sadness? It's like flipping a switch.

"Do you really think I deserve that Jesse?"

"Th-the potion?" I'm starting to feel really awkward and queasy just holding it out for her through the bars. "I wouldn't exactly be offering it to you if I didn't."

"No, do I deserve to go home anymore?"

My mind goes blank, nothing to say to her. On the one hand, I want to say yes. She has suffered so much away from her home, so much chaos in her mind that would finally be at peace. But all the people she murdered can't exactly go back to their home, they didn't deserve to die by her hands.

Cassie sighs, all of her anger just gone. It's truly amazing how she just changed like that, almost a snap and her emotions completely flipped themselves around. Is this the first time she's thought about this? Or is this the first time she's accepted it? Or maybe it's both?

Before I can even blink, Cassie grabs my arm and jerks me into the very cold and hard iron bars. My head rings and my vision refocuses, my face pounding and I'm definitely going to have a bruise. And in that brief moment Cassie releases me and reaches through the bars to pull out my sword, before quickly retreating deeper into her cell.

I shake my head, hearing keys jiggle as someone tries to do something productive right about now. But right as I open my mouth to say something, anything, to Cassie, she plunges the sword right through her heart.

Her eyes, once dull, now truly fade lifelessly. And I can't do anything but stare as she collapses onto her knees, head limp with blood pouring from her mouth. Only the fall onto the ground, blood seeping all over and completely stirring up a new odor.

"I don't have anything else to lose anymore!"

That's what she said, but at that moment she was wrong. So terribly and awfully wrong. She still had her home lose, she still had all of those hopes to lose. And they died somehow, our words, our actions, somehow convinced her that it wasn't worth it anymore. Going home wasn't worth it, living wasn't worth it.

I blink rapidly, trying to yank myself into reality. The reality that we have to clean up a body, the reality that I don't think I'll be able to use that sword again, the reality that something I did led to the direct death of a person.

My stomach, yet again, contorts and clenches, tying itself in painful knots. Knots that breakfast won't cure. Knots that are either full of regret, guilt, or remorse or some mix that I can't figure out. Knots that won't be going away until I'm able to get this sight out of my head.

A knot that will forever remain there as a reminder of someone who I wasn't able to save.

****

Titles titles titles, titles are just kinda weird for me. "Knots"? I feel like I could do better, but ehh. It works, I guess. But this will be why any new stories will be boring and just be 'Chapter _'.

Anyway! I wanted Cassie to have a bit more of a... dramatic ending than just left to die on a platform. So this is what came up, and I quite honestly had the most fun with Jesse being irritated about not having breakfast. Death? Nah. Writing a selfless hero complaining about missing one meal? Heck yeah!

And is it just me, or does anyone else think it's kinda strange how Cassie was left to die like that? There's a hint of the White Pumpkin at the end of Season 2, but until that moment, I assumed Jesse- who could even save Romeo- just left her to die. Considering what Romeo did is much greater than Cassie... that's kinda cold.

Enough of my rambling! Thanks to all for reading! See you all next time!