I was frozen.

No. Not here. Anywhere but here. Not this memory. I couldn't handle this. 

Someone poked me in the side.

"Is she supposed to be a statue?" The words had to be from Jaq, though the voice wasn't registering in my paralyzed brain.

"Oh, shut up. This place is weird. Where are we?" This was probably Justin. Then a strong hand gripped my shoulder.

"Jesse? Are you alright? It's okay to be scared, but we need you right now."

I focused on Jandro's calm tone, bringing myself back to the present, and drew in a deep breath. "No. This...this didn't even cross my mind. I thought it would be something else, anything but this. I can't...I can't do this..." The words trailed off into nothingness.

Jandro still had his hand on my shoulder, anchoring me. "Where are we? What happened here?"

"We're in the Witherstorm. It's been almost two years since I've been here. I had finally stopped having nightmares, but now I'm back, and we have to fight it again, and-"

"Hey, shh. Calm down. Just tell me what we have to do." He ordered gently. I lifted my head up, examining the inside of the Storm. Memories came washing over me, a flood of nightmares nearly forgotten.

"There." I pointed to the Command Block, partially hidden in the nest of dormant tentacles. "We need to destroy that. Last time it took three strikes, but it was with a different sword, one specifically enchanted to destroy the Command Block. I don't...I don't know what's gonna happen with our weird swords."

"So we...just gotta destroy the block?" Jaq asked suspiciously.

I shook my head nervously. It was so, so bizarre being back there, especially since I already knew what would happen. "The tentacles will come to life and try to stop us, probably by strangulation. Those two things up there," I said, pointing to the two resting Witherstorm heads on opposite sides of the place, "will try trap us in tractor beams when they wake up. And eventually the whole Storm may shift and turn upside down, so we might have to climb up to get the last few hits."

Jaq was nodding, following along with where I pointed. "Okay. So basically like with the hydra- just don't do anything majorly dumb."

The Storm quaked, enough to make us stumble but not fall. I heard a soft squealing noise behind me and turned, feeling my heart shatter into pieces. 

There was my scared-looking past self, faded and shimmering like a mirage. And beside her...me...was Reuben, the dear little pig who'd lost his life on this very mission.

I found myself unable to catch my breath. I remembered how Jaq had looked when we first saw the memory castle- like someone had punched her in the gut. I knew exactly how she felt now.

It all hit me so hard in that moment, how long it had truly been since his death. In the few weeks after we'd defeated the Storm, I'd been such a wreck. I didn't think I'd be able to go on without him, without my closest companion by my side.

But I had. I'd kept going, kept living, kept adventuring, kept getting into trouble. Would he be proud that I'd done that, or sad that I'd left him behind?

The question slid inside my chest and wrapped itself around my heart, squeezing, constricting, preventing me from feeling anything other than pure heartbreak. 

I started to come back to my senses when I heard Justin ask, "Whoa, wait. You did this alone?"

I shook my head stiffly. "I wasn't alone." I meant to say it confidently, but the words were barely a hoarse whisper.

Jaq offered me a sympathetic look that I hardly noticed. Past-me looked around the inside of the Storm, murmuring a quiet "whoa".

I turned to face the nest of tentacles again. "I think we should all strike it at the same time. I know I'm supposed to be the one to end it, but maybe that means I just have to deliver the finishing blow, and the rest of you can still help. At least, that's what I'm hoping."

The four of us (and the faded illusion of my past self) crept toward the Command Block, ducking under the drooping Wither arms. I readied my Aristan sword. "On three."

The others unsheathed theirs as well.

"One...two...three!"

We all slammed our blades down on the Command Block at the same time. A large crack appeared in the surface, and just as quickly, all of the tentacles came to life, trying to fling us away from the Command Block. I tried to hold my ground, slashing at the black masses, but there were too many. I ended up on the ground, spitting out a mouthful of blood.

"Lesson learned- don't fight back." Justin called. I swore and scrambled to my feet. The Command Block, as well as the grove of waving tentacles, had risen up from the ground, on top of a little platform.

"So..." Jandro started, but didn't say anything else.

"Was that supposed to happen?" Justin inquired.

"Yes." I growled, adjusting my grip on my sword. "Goal stays the same. Try and distract the tentacles, they get worse. You guys don't need to bother with the block anymore, I don't think you hitting it is really doing anything."

"AH! Holy shit, you weren't kidding!" Jaq shouted. One of the tentacles from the side had apparently attacked her, based on the limp black mass on the ground.

"They grow back." I warned. Jaq kicked at the fallen limb. "I think I hate this."

I ignored her and approached the Command Block again, my ghostly younger duplicate right behind. Jandro went beside me, and when we got to the writhing nest of tentacles, he went straight for the offensive, slicing and severing all the monstrous arms he could reach.

I raised my sword again and plunged it into the block, drastically widening the crack. I quickly wrenched the blade out and brought it down with just as much ferocity, but it wasn't enough. The Storm quaked violently, and began to shift sideways.

"It's turning upside-down!" I yelled, leaping away from the raised platform. Jandro managed to hang on until it was nearly halfway turned, then dropped.

"Holy fucking army of Herobrine." Jaq swore. "The hell IS this thing?! Why is it doing that?! HOW is it doing that?! WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!"

I wiped at my jaw, and my glove came away stained with blood. The first time I'd been tossed to the ground had opened an old wound over my mouth, sending drops of scarlet sliding down my chin. "Try not to dwell on it, I'd rather finish this quickly."

"How are you gonna get up there?" Justin asked, craning his head back to look at the Command Block now attached to the ceiling. I hesitated. "Not sure. Last time, I climbed up the sides, but I accidentally woke up those nasty things." I said, using my Aristan sword to point to the dormant Wither heads. "Then later, I used one of their tractor beams to get up, but then I dropped my sword, and..." I dragged in a shaky breath, refusing to look at the faded memory version of Reuben.

Jandro adjusted his grip on his iridescent rose-gold sword. "Okay. You go up the side again, and we'll keep the arm-tentacle-things occupied. If the...heads wake up, we'll distract them. I agree, I'd rather not spend any more time in here than necessary."

I nodded slowly, unable to keep the tense knot of emotions away from my expression. "Just be careful."

Turning towards my goal, I reached into my inventory and traded my Aristan sword for my enchanted diamond one. It wasn't the same weapon that had I had used during the original fight, but the crimson sword hadn't seemed to make a lot of difference, and between the two, I'd rather lose the diamond one should I happen to drop it.

The blocks that made up the inside of the Storm were slippery and strange to the touch. They were a bizarre mix of purples, burgundies, black, and greys, and I swore I could feel a subtle pulse if I kept my hand still long enough. I shuddered and kept moving, clambering up the side of the Storm easily.

I paused just before I jumped onto the Wither head, looking back at the other Shards. The tentacles were still going after them, writhing and twisting and looking like malicious arms made of pure darkness. The Aristan swords unfortunately didn't have their normal effect, though I couldn't tell if that was because of the Wither Storm's power or Entity 303's meddling.

Bending my knees, I jumped up onto the Wither head. It immediately came to life, roaring and trying to shake me off. I plunged my sword into the top of it and hung on for dear life. It snarled loudly and shook even more viciously, but I managed to stay on my feet.

"AAH!" Jaq shrieked when she saw the heads, and it distracted her for the half-second that the Witherstorm needed. One of the tentacles wrapped around her abdomen while another rid her of her sword. She yelled in frustration and tried to wriggle away, but the arm flipped her upside-down and pinned her against the Storm wall. One Shard out of commission.

Justin bolted over to try and help her, and while I was watching them, wondering if I should go down and help, I hadn't even noticed that Jandro had climbed up beside me.

"Please tell me this thing doesn't get any weirder." he said.

I startled slightly, then shook my head. "Not that I remember. The only thing is...I'm not sure if my Aristan sword is strong enough to break the Command Block. I had a really powerful sword the first time, and even though the Aristan ones are magical, they're a different kind of enchanting."

"Well..." Jandro started then shook his head. "Here's hoping, right?"

I nodded grimly, then I looked up, focusing on the Command Block and the protective Wither limbs around it. Yanking my sword from the Wither head, I backed up and ran towards the edge, taking off into a flying leap. I grabbed ahold of one of the dangling tentacles as it swung towards me. It swayed away from the block, and I reached for a second one.

As I seized the other tentacle, the first one reached around and wrenched my diamond sword from my grasp, throwing it down into the pit that I knew led to the hard stone below the Storm. I yelled in surprise and frustration, then drew my Aristan sword and lopped the tentacle in half.

The tentacle I was holding onto swung close to the Command Block, and I smashed my sword into it. The crack widened, but not enough. I hit again, and again, sinking the blade in almost to the hilt, but it wasn't breaking fast enough.

"No!" I shouted. Another limb was slinking around me, trying to loosen my grip. If I didn't break the Command Block soon, I would end up plummeting to my death, and then what would happen to the other Shards?

Then Jandro leaped across the gap just as I had, clinging to a tentacle with one hand and holding his Aristan sword out to me with the other. "Take mine! If one isn't strong enough, two might be."

"But..." I hesitated. If I merged the swords, he wouldn't be able to use his anymore.

"Take it!" He snapped desperately. I stowed my own weapon in my inventory and reached for his. Just as I had grabbed it, the limb he was holding onto shuddered violently, trying to toss him away. He gasped, slipping farther down. A quick glance down told me that a fatal fall was just below us, should either of us lose our grip.

"Han!" I heard Jaq yell, sounding panicked. Not looking at her, I stretched my arm out towards him as far as I could, my hand just brushing his. He reached up and grabbed my wrist, right as the Storm shook him off. We both shouted in fear, but I managed to hang on. 

This had turned into a certain-death situation. I had one arm wrapped around one of the Wither limbs, and the other hand around Jandro's wrist. He was hanging in midair, only my grip stopping him from falling to his death below.

Jaq was shrieking enraged nonsense that I couldn't hear through the buzzing in my own head. How to fix this, how to save us both?

"Jesse." He murmured.

"No." I snapped back, feeling tears sting my eyes.

"Jess. Let go of me." His deep voice was steady, calm to the very end.

"No! I can't, I won't! There's gotta be some other way, somehow we can..."

"You have to. You have to merge the swords and break the Command Block. Let go."

"NO! I'M NOT GOING TO KILL YOU!" I screamed, feeling borderline hysterical.

"Then what are you going to do?! Let us just hang here until the Storm decides to pry you free? Then we both die, and what happens to Jaq and Justin?!" Jandro yelled. I shook my head.

"No. I already lost one friend to this monster, I'm not losing another."

He stared up at me, determination steeling his brown eyes into an unreadable expression. "Then I guess the choice isn't really up to you."

Before I could figure out what he meant, I felt his hand slipping out of my grasp. He rotated his wrist, loosening his glove little by little.

I frantically tried to adjust my grip, but I couldn't, not without letting go of either him or the tentacle that was preventing me from falling as well. "Stop it! Han, no, you'll die! Please, don't..."

He didn't say anything else, just tugged his hand away from me a final time. I was left holding his teal glove...as he fell. 

"NOOOO! JANDRO!!" Jaq screeched, still pinned upside-down. I couldn't catch my breath as I watched him fall, farther, farther, lost in the purplish fog that clouded the gap in the Storm.

I didn't know how long it took before he hit the ground below, didn't know how much it had to have hurt, didn't even know what the Storm was doing anymore. I was lost in a fog, numbing and destroying all my thoughts except, he's gone.

"Jess!" Justin yelled up at me. "Jesse! Are you okay? You gotta break the Command Block!"

I glanced down at him, nodding numbly. I became aware I was still holding Jandro's discarded glove, and I tucked it into my inventory, instead pulling out our two Aristan swords. His rosy-gold and my scarlet one merged instantly, becoming one shining, sunset-hued sword, practically glowing with magic.

The bright colours brought me back to reality somewhat, forcing more tears out of my eyes. Just like that, another of our number was gone.

I was still close to the Command Block, just barely in range to strike. I pulled my swordarm back, then sank the blade into the center of the block with an aggrieved shout. The Command Block lit up as a great crack tore through it, splitting it apart in a burst of multicoloured sparks.

The whole Storm shuddered and quaked again, and all the tentacles went limp, releasing Jaq and making it more difficult for me to hold on.

"Jump down there! We should be over water now!" I yelled at the other two Shards, slipping the merged sword back into my inventory and pointing to the gaping pit at the bottom of the Storm.

"Should be?" Justin called warily back. Instead of responding, I dropped, letting gravity take ahold of me. Jaq came rushing after me.

As we fell towards what I hoped was safety, I prayed that we were nearly at the end of the trials, that there was only a little bit of this insanity left to go.

After all, one can only take so much loss.

-----

Endings what

Also, that was for all of you who've been holding on to the hope of an awkward adorable Janstin confession

HAHA SCREW YOU NOPE

UNREQUITED GAY CRUSHES

Word count: 2658