For several seconds, all I could hear was my own heartbeat, thudding out a rabid, terrified, beat in my chest.

She's dead.

The second Shard gone, and it was only the first day.

I snapped myself out of my daze, slowly turning around to face the other Shards. Jandro was still holding the bow- Jenni's own enchanted bow that had ended her life. Jaq was looking at the ground, clenching and unclenching her fists. And poor Justin was staring straight forward at Jenni's inventory, eyes wide and horrified.

I looked up and met Jandro's eyes. "I had to. There wasn't another choice. I had to." He murmured softly, talking more to himself than me.

"I know." I whispered, nodding ever so slightly. I lowered my gaze back down to the remnants of the other girl, feeling my eyes grow damp. It had been different when Joss died. I didn't know him at all, and it was so sudden. With Jenni, her end had been steadily approaching for hours, and we knew it. She had become a friend to me, not just another Shard.

And now she was gone.

Justin leaned down and picked up Jenni's Aristan sword from the pile of weapons she had discarded earlier. He then lifted his head and made eye contact with Jandro.

"You killed her." He breathed, a devastated expression settling over his face. The dark boy averted his eyes, seeming distressed. "We didn't have a choice. It's what she wanted. She didn't want to become a monster, and it was the only way to save her."

"That wasn't saving! She's dead!" Justin argued. Jandro looked at him again, heartbreak visible in his brown eyes. "I didn't have a choice." He repeated quietly.

"He's right, Justin. There wasn't anything else we could've done." I said, trying to placate both boys. Jaq finally stopped staring into space.

"Are you claiming her sword?" she asked Justin. He glanced down at the dark blue sword in his hand. "Yeah, I guess so."

He took out his own Aristan sword, the shining green one, and touched the two together. A flash of green and blue light temporarily blinded me, and then, just like when Jaq had merged her weapon with Joss's, Justin was left with a single shining sword. He twisted it back and forth in his hand, examining the emerald and aquamarine tones that the blade had taken on.

"Oh my Notch. Of course." Jaq exclaimed, pointing to something a few feet away. The next portal had appeared, right next to Jenni's inventory.

Jandro gaped at it, looking horrified. "So the real trial...was to kill one of our own. That's barbaric."

Jaq shook her head in disgust. "No kidding. I hope the next one is a little less stressful." She walked forward and went through the portal without a second's hesitation. Justin moved to follow her, but Jandro grabbed his shoulder.

"Justin...please listen. I didn't want to kill her, far from it. It was just...so sudden, and she already told us we needed to stop her, and I didn't want y-anyone to get hurt...I hope you understand."

Justin looked up at him, studying the other boy's earnest, worried, face for a long moment. Then he managed a thin smile. "It's alright. I don't blame you."

Jandro exhaled a long, relieved breath, letting go of him. "Thanks."

I gave him a sideways glance as Justin went through the portal. He noticed my expression and replied with a slightly sheepish look. "What?"

"Nothing. You're just...he's...nothing. Never mind." I said with a wave of my hand. Jandro looked at me suspiciously for a moment longer, then shrugged. "Ladies first. You always seem to be the last one through, so I'm not holding you back this time."

I laughed. "Yeah, I noticed that." I went forward a few steps and fell into the portal, letting the white abyss take me to wherever we would end up next.

When the portal spat me back out, I could hardly believe where I was. Back on the original floating island where we had first met Entity 303. The first place I had come since leaving the rest of the Order behind.

"Are we seriously where I think we are?" I asked, as Jandro appeared beside me.

"Yeah, I think so." Jaq replied, looking up at the night sky.

"So what's gonna happen now? And why does it have to be here?" Justin wondered aloud.

"Oh, nothing's going to happen." A deep voice said from behind us. All four of us screamed and whirled around, to see Entity 303 standing there.

"For fuck's SAKE! What the hell was THAT for?! Were you trying to scare us to death?!" Jaq yelled. 303 responded with nothing more than a small smile, and all the things Herobrine had told us about him resurfaced in my mind.

"You're not in any danger, not right now. I just felt like after all you've been through, my Shards deserved a rest." He said smoothly.

"We're not your anything." Jaq muttered disagreeably.

I felt a flash of anger at him talking about 'all we'd been through', as though he wasn't the one setting it all up in the first place. I almost couldn't believe he had the freaking nerve. Almost.

He leaned down, peering at me with a contemplative expression. "I'm surprised there's still four of you left. Three trials, three Shards gone, was my guess."

"Well, seems like you guessed wrong." I snapped. I hoped he wasn't lying about us getting to rest, I was tired and hungry and more mentally and emotionally raw than I'd been in a while. Not to mention that I'd almost been literally cooked.

He straightened up, a faint smile visible on his dark face. "It appears I did. Well, it doesn't matter, at least not yet. Rest up, Shards. Tomorrow isn't going be any easier than today."

That said, he faded away into nothingness, leaving behind not so much as a shadow.

"Arrrgggghhhh. I honestly think I'm starting to hate him. Like, not just hate him, but really REALLY hate him." Jaq growled.

Jandro gave her an amused look. "You hate a lot of people."

"Yeah, but it's different with him. He's just kind of...really hateable." She replied with a scowl. 

The small cabin was just the same as it had been when we left. The fire was still burning and everything. This put a new thought in my mind, something I had considered before but not wanted to dwell on.

"How long do you think we've been gone? I mean, 303 can obviously fuck with time however he wants, so...we could've been gone from the Overworld for a lot longer than it feels like." I asked.

Justin snorted. "I dunno. To me, it feels like we've already been here forever. I hate this place. I hate the stupid rigged trials, I hate the smug villain in charge of them, I hate knowing that we're all about to die, I hate trying to figure out how this all works and just feeling crazy...I hate this."

"Not to mention that we're stuck here with the most idiotic, nonsensical people." Jaq snapped.

Justin smiled sadistically. "Wow, you must really be losing it if you've resorted to talking about yourself in third person."

It took Jaq a minute to figure out what that barb meant, but once she did, she shot Justin with a glare so intense, it should've killed him right there. "Ohhh, you think you're so smart. It's amazing you've survived this long."

"With your short temper and bizarre hatred of me? Yeah, it kinda is." He shot back.

Jandro had hidden his face in his hands. "Guys, can we not?" 

Jaq turned her glare on him. "Oh, don't you start, little Mr. I-Don't-Fucking-Think-Ahead."

"Are we still on that?! Jaq, it's not like-"

"Yeah, yeah, it's never like anything! You can't be doing fucking stupid things like that anymore, especially not now."

"Since when are you in charge of me?!"

"Since I am capable of taking care of myself and you are not."

"Oh my Notch Jaq, are you even listening to yourself? You are full of so much bullshit, I can't believe- "

I turned around and headed back out the door, not able to stand listening to Jaq and Jandro bickering a second longer. I sat down heavily on the cabin's porch, heaving a deep sigh.

I've been through my share of madness. I've had to deal with some seriously crazy shit. But I've never been alone like this. Sure, I had the other Shards, but they made me feel even more alone sometimes.

I wondered what my friends were doing right then. If they were okay. If any new problems had sprung up while I'd been gone. I wondered, yet again, how much time had passed in the Overworld.

I wondered if I'd ever get home.

This was only the first day, and already two people were dead. Dead. Never to return to their homes and lives.

Would that happen to me? Would I end up as an inventory pile, my friends never to know the fate that had befallen me?

I lifted my knees up to my chest, wrapping my arms around my legs and feeling the loneliness sink into my core. 

Luckily, the isolated feeling didn't have the chance to last long. 

"Jaq and Jandro are going completely insane in there. They're both furious at each other, so I figured I'd be safer out here before someone's wrath hit me." Justin said, closing the door softly behind him and sinking down next to me. He had taken his blue-and-silver armor off, leaving him in a grey long-sleeved shirt, green suspenders, and tan pants.

"Wow, it's nice out here. So quiet." He observed.

I looked up at the sky. He was right. The silence was almost tangible, filling me up from the inside out. "No kidding. I guess there's no such thing as crummy weather when you live in an impossible prison with several all-powerful chaotic beings."

Justin laughed quietly. "Yeah. One of the upsides to being trapped beyond the Farlands, I suppose. Though I'd assume that said upsides are pretty few and far between."

We were quiet for a few moments.

"Jaq's definitely a piece of work, isn't she?" Justin asked.

"Huh! She's a piece of something." I huffed in reply. Justin laughed, and I quickly added "Don't...tell her I said that."

He shook his head, still chuckling quietly. "I won't, because you're completely right. I have no idea how Jandro stands her."

"I think he just has a high insanity tolerance." I joked. Justin's grin didn't fall. "Yeah, but Jaq's kind of insanity seems a little intolerable, no matter who you are."

I shrugged, still smiling. Justin leaned back, stretching his legs out and leaning on his elbows for support. "So, hey. We haven't really gotten a chance to just...talk. Tell me more about yourself. Your friends."

I sighed. "Oh, my friends. Where do I even start? Well, the five of us have known each other kind of forever. I grew up with Axel and Olivia, they're basically my siblings. I've known Lukas for a pretty long time too, but we only became friends about a year ago. He's cool, though. I honestly couldn't imagine life without them."

"What about the other girl? The redhead?" Justin pried, and I nodded.

"Right, Petra. I've known her for a while too, but she used to be kind of like Jaq. Really independent, a bit unfriendly. She's warmed up to the rest of us, though. And she and Lukas are kind of a thing, but also kind of not. They're together, but they think we don't know, or something like that? It's...it's weird, I don't get it."

"What about you? Any special girl in your life? Or boy, I won't judge." He inquired. This made me laugh harder than it probably should've. "Nope, not at all. I don't really have crushes. Never have."

"Really? Huh. That's...ace, right? Or aromantic?" Justin asked, and I shrugged again.

"I dunno. Doesn't really matter to me what you call it." I told him honestly. "What about you? What's your friend group like?"

His smile took on a more thoughtful, wistful light. "Ah, right. I don't have a whole group of besties like you do, we're just a trio. Abbey, Chase, and me. And Rory tags along on our adventures sometimes, but she's fourteen and completely unreliable, so y'know." He paused for a second, looking uncharacteristically serious.

"Jenni kind of reminded me of Abbey, which I think is why it hit so hard when she...you know. Abbey's really nice, always wanting to help and take care of the rest of us."

"She's your mom friend." I joked.

Justin grinned. "Yeah, exactly. She and I grew up together, so she's basically my sister. Honestly sometimes I think I like her better than my real brothers. And as for Chase...he's different. I've only known him for a few years, but he's...he's great."

"He's your..." I guessed.

Justin nodded, blushing lightly. "My boyfriend, yeah. He's odd, but in a good way. All sorts of good ways. We've been together for...two years? I think two years. Not quite three. He was the one who got me my magic rope."

"Ah. That was the next thing I was gonna ask you." I told him. That wasn't entirely true- to be honest the rope had mostly slipped my mind, but I still wanted to know about it.

Justin pulled the rope out of his inventory. For the most part, it looked like an ordinary length of cord, though it glowed slightly purple. I lightly touched the coil, frowning. "I didn't know you could enchant rope."

"You usually can't. But Soren seemed pretty good at doing impossible stuff, at least to my knowledge." He replied. I pulled my hand back.

"Riiiiight, okay, that makes sense. Of course you got it from Soren." 

Just then, the cabin door slammed shut behind us, and Jandro came stomping out and flung himself down next to me with an annoyed sigh.

"What's up?" I asked.

He shook his head. "Freaking Jaqueline. She's just...I don't even...I can't. I just can't right now."

"Do I even want to know what happened?" Justin asked.

"No. You really don't." Jandro replied, rubbing his forehead. "I hope it's okay that I'm barging in on your conversation. I just need a bit of normality right now."

"It's fine. It's not like it was a serious talk or anything, and we'd rather you were safe out here than dealing with the wrath of dragon-girl." Justin said with an easygoing shrug.

Jandro sighed again. "She just...she's my best friend, but she doesn't know when to fucking shut up. She goes crazy when she gets mad, and unfortunately, so do I sometimes. I think...I'd like to think she's just stressed and taking it out on me, but I have no idea."

"I have a friend that gets like that sometimes. She's amazing most of the time, but man, you piss her off and all hell breaks loose." I added, remembering Petra's furious ranting the last time something made her mad.

"Not me. My friends are all pretty chill." Justin said cheerfully. "Then you don't know how lucky you are." Jandro replied with a rueful smile.

"How do you two know each other?" I asked, hoping simple conversation would calm him down.

"Uh...I don't even know. She's just always been a part of my life. Kind of like a sister, also kinda not. It sounds weird, but it's totally normal for us. And she's...I swear she's not always like this."

"'Not like this'. You mean...a raging bitch?" Justin asked. Jandro gave him a halfhearted smile.

"Yeah. I mean, it's not like she's the nicest person in the world, but she's not usually this mean. I think she's just scared."

"We all are." I added softly.

He nodded slowly. "I think you'd have to be crazy not to be. This is just...on the list of things I imagined I'd do in my life, this was not one of them. This doesn't feel real, like maybe it's just a crazy nightmare, and I'm not really going through this. I can almost pretend that I'm not here, like maybe this is just an illusion, or a dream, or something else entirely...but at the same time, it feels way too real. I've had people close to me die before...but not like this. Not so close. It makes it all feel a bit too real. You know?"

"Completely. Couldn't've said it better." Justin said. For a second, I couldn't tell if he was joking or not, but one glance at his somber expression told me he was being serious. Then he stood up and stretched.

"I'm going to bed. Don't stay out too long." Justin said with a light smile. Jandro glanced up at him, looking slightly crestfallen. "You're not staying?"

"Nah. Too much craziness today. Need sleep." Justin shook his head, and Jandro smiled shyly.

"Just try to avoid Jaq. I mentioned that she's in an even fouler mood than usual, right?"

Justin gave him a winning smile and turned to go. "I didn't know that was possible."

"Careful. You've been around her long enough to know that that kind of attitude will get you smacked. Probably with a sword, too." I joked.

Jandro craned his head back and watched Justin leave, then turned back and looked at the ground, still smiling slightly.

A few moments of silence stretched by, just Jandro and I sitting peacefully in the darkening night. There was something I kind of wanted to ask him, but wasn't sure how to word it. 

"Hey...Han?" I started hesitantly. He lifted his head, looking a bit startled. "Yeah?"

"Uh...Yesterday you said you thought you might know what Entity 303 was up to. Can you tell me, please? Even if it's just a theory...I want to know."

He exhaled slowly, looking straight ahead again. "Ah. Right. We're talking about that."

I waited quietly. He took a deep breath in, then started talking in a low voice. "He wants to escape the Farlands. That much is obvious, right? And he made sure he had us and the Aristan swords, which means he needs both for his plan. Today was the first time we heard that only we can merge the swords, and we already knew that he's planning to kill off most of us in the trials."

He paused for a second, then continued. "When there's only one Shard left- be it you or me or Jaq or Justin -they'll have almost all of the swords merged into one. I'm guessing that Entity 303 will give them the last sword...and then probably kill them after they've combined it into its final form. He won't need us anymore."

"But how will that get him out of here?" I asked, not fully understanding. He looked up and met my eyes again.

"That rock he showed us. He said that when we plunge the last sword into the center of it, it'll transport us home. That will work for him too. When he gets the last sword, he'll use it to send himself back into the Overworld! Jesse, if we don't defeat him, Entity 303 will be released into the Overworld, after centuries of gaining chaos-power from this place! He'll be unstoppable!"

I reeled back, stunned. It made perfect sense. "B-but...what can we do?!"

Jandro didn't move, watching me with a blank, worried, expression. "It's just like with Jenni. There's not much we can do."

"No. No no no, Han, there's gotta be something..." I protested.

"Our only chance would be to somehow kill him before he kills us. But he's a monster of legend, and we don't know anything about the next trials, or what he's going to do when there's only one of us left. We've figured out some things, but what we don't know could kill us." He replied desperately.

I exhaled shakily, propping my arms on my knees and dropping my head into my hands. "This is crazy. I still cannot fucking believe this is happening. Is this really happening? Am I really here?"

Jandro put his arm over my shoulders. "I'm right there with you. Jess, we're all right here with you. This is pure insanity, but all we can do is keep trying to survive. I'm sorry I came off as so negative...it's not what I was trying to say. Everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end, right?"

I laughed abruptly. "Believe it or not, I've heard that one before. Slightly different setting, but still the same, kind of hopeless, idea."

I leaned into him, and he didn't pull away, both of us trying to support each other and ourselves in the lull of the madness. "I'm not...I'm not giving up. I'm not ready to quit. It's just really starting to sink in how crazy this all is."

He smiled sadly. "Same here. But these kinds of situations are what can make or break a hero...and I just hope none of us will break quite yet."

We sat in silence, me silently devising insane plans against 303 that I knew would never work, and him thinking about...who knows what. If this was from his point of view, you would know. But it's not, and we don't.

Eventually, Jandro stirred and started to stand. "I'm gonna go to bed, assuming Jaq isn't still in there waiting to yell at me."

"Ugh, I probably should too." I said, stretching my sore legs as I stood up.

We both went inside the dim cabin, and I hesitantly tiptoed down the hall to my room. It felt way too empty without Jenni there too. She hadn't even made her bed before we left that morning. We hadn't expected that she wouldn't return to it.

I climbed up to the top bunk after taking off my armor. Laying on my back, I closed my eyes and silently prayed to Notch and who or whatever else might happen to hear me.

Please don't let us all die tomorrow. Please let me see my friends again. So much has happened already, please, let me make it through one ordeal more.

I don't want to die here.

------------------

Hhhhhh I keep trying to make Jaq nicer and it just keeps not happening

She's coming off way more terrible than I want her to be, and I can't seem to fIX IT.

Jandro,, why are you being so gay. Could you possible get any more obvious about your crush, I think not.

Though honestly I like Han being blatantly smitten, and Justin being so completely oblivious. They're just...hhnn...THEY'RE REALLY CUTE OKAY.

Word count: 3709 (god.)