Stop it. Jesse mentally scolded herself for the third time that morning, recognising the familiar, metallic taste of blood in her mouth. At that rate, she was going to chew straight through her own lip by the time they've reached the Blaze Rods.

Trying to keep her mind busy so she'd stop gnawing on her own lip, Jesse glanced around at her friends. Olivia was riding at the lead, holding the tracker, with Axel riding beside her. Lukas and Petra were riding behind them, while Jesse was at the back of the group.

They were in a bit of an unfamiliar part of the jungle, taking a different route to the Blaze Rods. It was a bit longer and much more tedious, but worth it for the sake of not getting tracked. They rode up two different creeks where the water wasn't too rough, and followed the most rocky paths.

"We're getting closer." Olivia said from the front. The engineer's voice was wobbling nervously.

"Just stick to the plan, and everything will be fine." Jesse said reassuring. She felt her stomach turn at her own words. She wasn't intending to follow the plan.

"What does the tracker say about Aiden and Gill?" Lukas asked.

"They're not in the area." Olivia said. "A little off to the west at a location marked as C.B on the tracker."

"What does C.B stand for?" Petra asked warily, frowning.

"I don't know." Olivia said, glancing back at them briefly.

"Hopefully not important?" Axel suggested optimistically, earning a nod from Olivia.

Petra pulled slightly on her horse's reigns, slowly the mare down until she was walking beside Jesse. Jesse gave her friend the most confident smile she could muster, hoping her fear wasn't as visible.

"Scared?" Petra asked, making Jesse's heart drop. Was it that obvious?

She shrugged lightly. "A bit concerned, but-"

"No, you're scared." Petra said, smiling vaguely. "I can sense it even from where I was riding in front of you."

"Wait, you can smell that something's up?" Jesse asked, dropping her voice to a low whisper so the others couldn't hear.

Petra frowned slightly, nodding. "Yeah. Can't remember ever having picked up on these scents before, mind you."

"Of course not, your sense of smell has never been that good." Jesse whispered back.

Petra's face fell slightly, her grip on the reins increasing. Jesse could have sworn she saw a little bit of colour drain from Petra's cheeks.

"You okay?" She asked softly.

"Fine." Petra responded, leaning back and fishing a water bottle out of her saddlebag.

Jesse frowned slightly, unsettled by Petra's reaction. Was her friend hiding something?

"Alright." Olivia said, pulling her horse to a stop. "We're close enough."

Everybody dismounted from their horses, trying them up to the nearest trees. Then they gathered around, standing in somewhat of a circle as they faced each other.

"So, I'll be staying here with our horses as planned." Lukas said, holding up a small device. "But Olivia has the other redstone powered radio. If you guys need me there at all, she can give me the signal."

"Right." Olivia said, giving him the nod of confirmation.

"This way, we'll have both our best fighters there if something goes wrong – me and Jesse." Petra said. "Axel's our strength. Need a door pried off with a pry bar, he's our man."

"Right, and we have to get Liv in there to deactivate the command block." Axel added.

"And in a way, you'll be our canary, Jesse." Olivia said to Jesse. "The first sign you get that something isn't right, we know you're getting too close to the command block."

"All good." Jesse responded. "You guys ready for this?"

"As ready as we'll ever be." Lukas responded, smiling. "You four be safe in there, okay?"

Everybody nodded, Petra even giving Lukas a thumbs up. With that, the two groups parted. Lukas remained with the horses, while Jesse took the lead as the rest of them used the tracker to guide them the last stretch.

"This is it." Jesse said after a while, beginning to recognise the trees.

"Yeah. This is where we fought." Olivia said, her eyes glued on the tracker.

Petra gulped slightly, her eyes locked on the area she had last seen Rascal. His body was no longer there, but she knew it was the spot. The hand holding Miss Butter twitched slightly.

Noticing her friend's discomfort, Jesse reached over, giving Petra's hand a quick squeeze before heading forward again.

"Now the only question is, where is this base actually?" Olivia asked thoughtfully.

"According to the tracker, it looks like we're right on top of it." Axel said, pointing a finger at the tracker.

"On top..." Jesse repeated his words softly, her eyes widening in realisation. "Of course, that makes so much sense! The base has to be below us!"

"Look around for anything that could be a passage down." Olivia said immediately. "A hatch, a stairway, anything."

Immediately the four of them scattered, beginning to comb the area. Petra absent-mindedly sniffed the air, picking up on the scents of the Blaze Rods. Old scents, they definitely weren't there that moment.
Without really thinking, Petra went down on her knees. She sniffed the air again.

"Wow, embracing your inner wolf there, Petra?" Axel asked, earning a slap to the shoulder from Olivia.

"No.. I-" Petra broke off, sneezing as her face got too close to the ground. She sniffed slightly, shaking her head. "The scents are strongest here."

She began brushing the leaves away with her hands. Not really brushing them away the way a person normally would, more so digging through them in the way an animal would. The others gathered around as Petra parted the leaves to reveal the grey metal surface of something buried below it.

"You found it!" Jesse said in amazement as Petra heaved open the metal hatch to reveal a ladder down into the dark.

"Now, who goes first?" Axel asked, immediately backing in behind Olivia, who just rolled her eyes.

"I will." Jesse replied matter-of-factly.

Before her friends could say anything, she threw her legs over the side, placing her feet on the first step of the ladder. Biting her lip in concentration, Jesse felt her way down the ladder in the dark. Finally her feet met the ground below and she pushed herself off the ladder. Petra soon followed behind, then Olivia and lastly Axel – who nearly got stuck in the hatch.

"Here." Olivia said, opening her bag of tools and tossing Jesse a flashlight. She took out another for herself, having only brought two.

"God, this place reeks." Petra said, shaking her head as she raised a hand to her nose. "It's messing with my sense of smell, I can't-" She coughed, shaking her head again. "I can't really make things out in here."

Jesse inhaled deeply, only able to pick up a bit of a foul odour in the air. Petra's sense of smell had to be really advanced for it to bother her so much.

"I don't smell anything-" Axel began, only to be cut off by what sounded like Olivia slapping him again.

"Okay, so how big is the place." Jesse murmured, as she and Olivia shone their flash lights around the room.

Petra didn't really seem to be paying attention, just standing back with a hand over her nose and a somewhat nauseated look on her face. Axel's eyes on the other hand were following the beams of light, all of a sudden grabbing Olivia by the arm.

"Wait, look!" He said, guiding the beam back to the corner of the room.

"Another staircase down?" Jesse said thoughtfully, guiding her beam in that direction as well.

"Deeper underground seems more suspicious, I don't know." Axel said with a shrug. "If I was hiding a powerful machine, I'd do it deep below the ground."

"You're right." Olivia said, raising her eyebrows. "Why can't you use this part of your brain more often, Axel?"

"So, we're going down there?" Jesse asked, glancing over her shoulder at the others.

"I think so, yeah." Olivia responded.

"Let's hope it smells better down there, before I actually throw up." Petra muttered bluntly.

Doing another sweep of the room with their flash lights, the four of them began walking in the direction of the staircase. Flinching as it creaked loudly beneath their weight, the sound echoing through the bunker. It went down quite deep, not stopping for long.

"How deep are we by now?" Olivia asked as the flash lights finally shone onto the concrete flooring a few steps below them.

"No clue." Jesse said, glancing back up. "Far enough down that I can't see the top any more."

"This is creepy." Axel added in a loud whisper.

"Let's hope your hunch about the command block being down here is correct, big guy." Petra said matter-of-factly.

Jesse shone her flash light into the dark, her eyes widening as the light glinted off of something silver. Bars, metal bars.

"Cages?" Olivia asked in a small voice.

"That's about what it looks like." Jesse responded shakily.

"Okay, what the hell is going on in that twisted head of Aiden's?" Petra muttered.

"I don't know, but I don't like it either." Axel responded.

"Let's hope the command block is in here at least." Olivia mumbled with a shudder.

The four of them began walking along the wall, keeping a good distance between them and the cell-like cages. Jesse and Olivia were in the lead, using the flash lights to shine into all the dark corners and shadows of the hall. Petra was occasionally sniffing the air, trying to make sense of the various smells without any success, only resulting in her coughing or sneezing every now and then.

"This is awful." Petra muttered, shaking her head. "I seriously want my old nose back at this point-" She stopped, freezing to the spot.

"Petra?" Jesse asked as they turned back to face her. "What is it?"

Petra's eyebrows were knitted together in concentration, her blue eyes narrowed. She held a hand up to keep the others quiet. "I heard something..." She said softly. "We're not alone in here..."

Jesse felt for her sword, making sure she was ready to grab it if she needed to. Since their footsteps were no longer filling her ears, she was lightly picking up on a shuffling sound as well. Something was moving around in the dark.

Olivia shone her torch in the direction the sound was coming from, right inside one of the cages. There was a shadow hunched in the back, huddled into the corner where her light couldn't reach.

"Who's there?" Petra asked defensively, unsheathing Miss Butter.

Upon hearing her voice, the figure stiffened. They all stood frozen, watching as the hint of white muzzle peeked out of the shadows. Hesitantly and scared, the animal moved forward to reveal it's face. Two blue eyes meeting theirs.

It felt like Jesse's heart had physically stopped beating in her chest, unable to not recognise the wolf staring back at her. She cast a glance over at Petra, immediately confirming that Petra was seeing the same thing she did. Petra had taken a step back, still as a statue. Her mouth was slightly open, her eyes locked on those of the animal in front of them. The colour had drained from her skin.

Olivia and Axel exchanged glances as well, both of them at a loss for words. Olivia was the first one to somewhat get her voice back. 

"Is... Is that-?"

"Rascal." Petra breathed in a nearly inaudible whisper.

Immediately the wolf's ears pricked at his name, and he emerged out of the shadows. Dried blood still stained his fur, but by his smooth movements he clearly wasn't in any pain. He let out a soft whine as he stopped at the bars, his eyes fixed right on his owner. And then he cocked his head to the side, allowing his one ear to flop down and his tail giving a few enthusiastic wags.

That last gesture was all Petra needed. As if the other three weren't even in the room, something that sounded like a strangled sob escaped her throat. She stumbled towards the cage, dropping to her knees in front of the bars. Tears were pooling in her eyes as she stuck her hands through the bars, immediately knotting her fingers into Rascal's fur. In return he began to lick her, whining softly.

"I don't understand..." Axel said softly. "How?"

"The hell I care how." Petra choked out, not even glancing back. Through her falling tears she broke into a smile. "Rascal, I can't believe it's you."

Rascal pressed his snout through the bars, nudging Petra's cheek with his nose. He gently licked her face, the action causing her smile to grow even more.
And for as happy as Jesse felt for her friend at that moment, there was a new weight of dread suddenly weighing her down.

Things just got a whole lot more complicated.

___

What? Don't look at me like that, be happy!

So Rascal's alive, and the Blaze Rods haven't...used him yet, so to speak. But this definitely complicates the order's plans, and a lot at that. Suddenly there's a new life on the line.

How is this going to change things?
Will Petra still want her revenge, even with somebody to fight for again?
Will the Order be able to free Rascal and bring him home, safely?
Will the Blaze Rods get to use Rascal as leverage like they originally intended?
Will this mission even be a success?

Most importantly, will everybody get out of this alive?

Okay, maybe I'm getting a ahead of myself, but I'd love to hear you guys' theories! Rascal's back, the order's plans are changing, Aiden's intentions are yet to be revealed, and we still haven't found out what Petra is hiding from her friends- See ya'll in five days with chapter 16!