"Harper? Is that you?"

That was the first signal that the conversation was about to make a turn for the worse. Jesse saw the crowd's glee quickly turn sour as they took in Harper. Oh boy, she thought to herself as she spotted more than a few frowns and crossed arms.

"Um...Yes. Hi, Harry." Harper said sheepishly, rubbing the back of her head and looking down in shame.

Harry, she thought, looked and sounded very different to the model in Harper's laboratory. She had no idea why she had assigned a flower to him, but for whatever reason that was, he certainly didn't look very happy to see her.

He looked eager to smile and embrace her, sharing the celebratory feeling of being free from PAMA's grasp, but there was something holding him back. "You didn't do this to us." He asked softly, "Did you?"

Harper immediately shrank away from the crowd, touching her arm for comfort. A middle-aged woman beside Harry crossed her arms, squinting at her suspiciously. "You did." Jesse could sense trouble brewing in her accusatory tone.

She didn't want to deal with this right now.

The fight with PAMA had left her energy reserves completely drained. It was a miracle that she was still standing at this point. But that was always the way these things went: they'd save a town from certain doom and were then expected to give a huge inspiring speech to the townspeople, get them to settle their differences, and then be on their way. That was how it had been ever since the Witherstorm. And maybe on another day, when she didn't feel like she had been thrown at a brick wall at high-speed, she could have dealt with it.

But the first thing Jesse had noticed when they emerged from PAMA's lair was the uncompleted portal standing in the courtyard, with the townspeople celebrating and rejoicing a few meters away. It was selfish of her, but her immediate thought wasn't relief that everyone was fine.

"We're not getting home anytime soon."

The crowd's mood suddenly shifted, cheers turning to boos, directed towards Harper as she tried to regain control of the situation. "Well, I mean–hey–" The front of the crowd started pushing towards her. She quickly retreated several steps. "It's complicated. You have to understand."

"How could you do this to us?" Someone in the crowd said loudly. The rest of them grumbled in agreement.

Jesse stepped in front of Harper before the crowd could get any closer, acting as a barrier between them. "You don't understand – Harper helped defeat PAMA too." The red hair woman gave her a dirty look. It never failed to amuse her how quickly people could go from praising your name to stamping it into the dirt. "We couldn't have done it without her."

No one seemed particularly impressed by her defence. In the corner of her eye, Jesse spotted Petra subtly reach for her sword.

"So, what, we're just supposed to forgive her now?" Harry pointed an angry finger at Harper.

Suddenly, Little Miss Red pushed against Jesse harder. "No, I don't think so." She muttered, eyeing Harper up like a fat hog roast. Jesse gently pushed the women away, holding her hands out widely.

Another man appeared next to Harry, sharing the same murderous expression as the crowd. "Harper stripped this place bare to build that monster – how are we supposed to rebuild?"

"You can't expect us to just rebuild and forget about what happened!"

She felt their displeasure ooze off them, and while it was completely called for, it wasn't what Jesse wanted to deal with at that moment.

She glanced over at Harper, trying to reach a fair conclusion. Sure she had messed up, but couldn't the same be said for Ivor? And he had proved himself to be invaluable in their treasure hunting back home, as well as their recent portal mishaps. "Whatever you guys decide to do..." she started, setting her mind on her final judgement. "Harper will make things right and help you clean it all up."

It was impossible to gauge how well the crowd took it. Most of them had surprise written all over their faces, clearly having expected her to cast Harper off as an exile. But if she truly had the right intentions when she built PAMA, and was one of the Old Builders, then she was their best chance of restoring the town back to near normality.

Harper seemed just as shocked by the revelation too. "I... I will?" she whispered to Jesse.

The red lady shook her head softly and scoffed. "Yeah. She will?"

"Yeah." Jesse glared her down. "Right Harper." She gave her a small nudge with her elbow, trying to communicate through her eyes for Harper to back her up. She didn't like the odds of what would happen if the crowd didn't agree with them.

Thankfully, Harper seemed to get the message. "Yes. Yes, I will." She stepped out of Jesse's shadow and tried to look confident and reassuring to the others. "After I help these travellers find their way home, I'll come back, help you all find new resources, and we'll make this world great again."

A couple of people in the crowd still looked sceptic of the new plan – including Ms. Red at the front – but the majority of people seemed satisfied with the development. The balding man next to Harry mumbled something into his ear, shrugging at the whispered reply. "Worth a shot I guess..." he sighed reluctantly.

The crowd started to dissipate: people returned to their homes to survey the damage done and collect the tools they needed to begin the long process of dismantling PAMA's huge screen and lair.

Jesse looked behind them to the exit portal. Compared to the other portals they had come across this one was lacklustre at best. The gold exterior only reached up to her shoulders, while work on the redstone blocks had barely even begun. It was as unfinished as anything could be.

"I know what you're thinking Jesse." She immediately felt the eyes of the others on her back and resisted the urge to shy away from the attention. "PAMA apparently had a hard time finding the materials to finish the build."

"How bad is it?" she asked hesitantly.

Harper went closer to inspect the portal, walking around its sorry state and gauging the amount of work required to complete it. "It's not as bad as it looks," she finally concluded, "Obviously, we need to finish the exterior first. There's a mineshaft nearby that should contain enough gold we need. Then we need some redstone blocks on the interior of the gold. There should be some redstone ore deeper inside PAMA's lair; we just need the proper tools."

Petra looked at the fading crowd. "You think these guys can help?" she said, gesturing towards them.

Harper caught sight of them and shook her head sadly. "I think that would be pushing it right now," she said as the last members of the crowd shot her daggers. "I can get it done faster without their help. I do, after all, know where to find the proper resources. And it would probably be best if I stayed out of everyone's way for the time being."

Jesse raised her eyebrows, shaking her arms. "What! No, we couldn't ask you do to all that for us!"

"Relax Jesse," Harper put an arm around her shoulder. "After all you and your friends have done for this town, for me, this is the least I can do."

While Jesse wasn't reassured by her words, they seemed to make everyone else happy. Lukas and Petra patted her on the shoulders.

"Well, that couldn't have gone any better." Lukas grinned his teeth at her, "Good job at handling that crowd."

It was nothing that anyone else couldn't have managed, Jesse thought sadly but returned the smile as best as she could. It did nothing to distract her from the chip still embedded in the back of Lukas' head.

Harper pointed to a small stilted house built the closest to PAMA's lair. "Looks like you've got the rest of the day off. You see that house right there? That one's mine. Feel free to sleep there while I fix the portal up."

Jesse nodded along, already setting her mind on some quiet time alone. "And where will you be?"

"In PAMA's lair. Hopefully before anyone else gets the same idea to look for resources without me."

Ivor suddenly barged to her side. "And of course I understand that you'll be very busy, but I wouldn't mind joining you. I for one would like to see exactly how these things are constructed."

Harper chuckled at his poor attempt to hide his childlike giddiness, as if he were a young boy on Christmas morning. "Course you can. And I'll be happy to answer any questions you have."

The two of them walked off together to PAMA's lair, leaving Jesse, Lukas and Petra alone. "Well if we're going to be stuck here, I might as well get some stuff for the road," Petra said, backing off down one of the winding pathways around the houses. "See if these guys have a crafting table somewhere."

Lukas started to head off in the opposite direction. "And I'd like to make some more notes on this biome before we head off. There's bound to be some information I can get about the surrounding area."

"I'll be at Harper's if you need me. Stay safe you two."

They all headed off to their own business. Jesse kept up her cheery grin like a mask all the way to the house, passing numerous people on her way there. Each one had something different to say, whether it was more offers of thanks or someone offering some carrots or potatoes. She dealt with each one, thanking them for helping with the portal, or telling them to keep their gifts – they would certainly need them more than they did. By the time she had gotten through the front door, she was more exhausted than before.

The interior was very simplistic: a couple of curtain-less windows, a cold furnace next to the door, and a large rectangular chest on the far wall. All around it were bookshelves, filled to the brim with thick tomes she could barely pronounce the names of. She picked the first book she spotted...and quickly put it back as she saw the author's name. Soren: An Enderman's Testimony Volume 5.

A set of stairs led to the next floor, where there were several beds dotted around the room. The right number for their group, minus Harper. They would have to sort out a system to let her have a couple of hours of sleep too. While Jesse was itching to get home, she wasn't willing to let the portal's lead builder go sleepless for the whole project, as well as help them get back to their own world.

Jesse stopped in front of one of the beds, certain that no one would be able to see her. Then she dropped her facade, sighing heavily and letting her eyes droop. As she collapsed onto the mattress a cloud of dust and sand erupted around her. She got up immediately, coughing and spluttering.

Harper had told her that when PAMA had controlled the townspeople, she hadn't spoken to anyone with a free mind for a long time. Jesse hadn't thought she meant that long.

Her mood wasn't improved by the bed either. The mattress was as hard as a rock, and every time she moved more sand came out of it. The sheets were musty and felt course under her armour. It was no five-star hotel by any means, but a bed was a bed. Jesse felt her eyes close by their own accord and prepared herself for a deep sleep.

~0~

Several hours later, Lukas finally went up to Harper's house for a break from the sunlight and humidity. He was satisfied with the amount he had written about this biome, to the point where he had been forced to stop lest he run out of space in his book. His face was covered in a thin layer of sweat and dust, while parts of fringe were sticking to his forehead.

He spotted Petra sitting by one of the windows, balancing her sword on one knee and polishing it with an old dirty rag. She nodded at him as he entered before returning to her work.

Lukas found a sofa fashioned out of sandstone by the bookshelves to rest, letting himself sink into the cushions littered around it and relishing the coolness of the sandstone on his hands and neck.

They were suddenly cut off from their work by a loud thud coming from upstairs. Both stared up at the ceiling in confusion. "Was that Jesse?" Lukas raised an eyebrow at the sandstone.

Petra waved him off and went back to polishing her sword. "Don't worry about it. She's probably using a dummy as a sparring partner."

"She does enjoy swinging that sword around a lot." Lukas chuckled.

Another two thumps echoed downstairs, one after the other. Petra shook her head, tutting softly, before returning to her work. Lukas, on the other hand, stared blankly at his notebook, holding his quill in mid-air.

"Hey Petra, you haven't noticed anything different about Jesse have you?"

Petra looked up from her sword for a second. She noticed his tense form as he slowly put his quill away and folded his book in his lap. "You mean other than her bad jokes?" she smiled. Lukas wasn't impressed.

"I'm serious. You don't think she's any different?"

"You're gonna have to elaborate on that. Different, as in leader-wise, or different as in fighting style?"

"Different as in Jesse-wise."

Petra looked down at her frowning reflection in her sword. "What are you getting at Lukas?"

He exhaled loudly through his nostrils. "It may be nothing, but sometimes I see her frowning when she thinks no one's looking. She seems tired all the time, but she always opts to stay on guard when the rest of us sleeps. I mean can you tell me at least one time you've actually seen her sleep?"

She couldn't.

"And then there's her smiles."

"What wrong with her smile?"

Lukas looked dead straight into her eyes. "They never. Reach. Her. Eyes." He sighed, running his fingers through his hair. "I'm not overreacting am I?"

Petra smiled at him knowingly. "You know what I think? I think she's just overexerting herself a little bit recently and needs a good break. And that you're just reading into this too much because you spend half your time looking at Jesse when her back is turned."

She laughed his shocked expression and the instant redness that spread across his face. "Oh come on Lukas! You couldn't be more obvious if you tried."

Lukas groaned and slumped further down his chair, covering his burning face with his hands. "It's that obvious?"

Petra stared at him. "Ivor agreed with me on this." she deadpanned, "Ivor, Lukas."

She gazed out at the sun setting over the sandy dunes. The sky was streaked with crimsons, yellows, and even the odd flash of purple and pink. "What I don't understand is why you haven't told her yet."

"It's not like I don't want to!" His hands muffled his voice into a tiny squeak. That was cause enough for him to let them drop to the chair legs. "It's just...what if it's just me? I'd just end up embarrassing myself and making things awkward between us. I don't want to ruin what we have, just for the sake of me being straight with her."

Petra suddenly burst out into laughter. Lukas stared at her incredulously, shifting himself into a better position. "Don't laugh at me! I didn't bring it up in the first place!"

Petra managed to bring a finger to her lips and hush him, while wiping a tear away with the other hand. "Keep it down or she'll hear you!" she giggled, gesturing to the ceiling as another thump resonated from upstairs. "Besides, I wasn't laughing at you so to say. It's just that the two of you are being absolutely ridiculous."

"The two of us?"

Petra threw the rag at Lukas' face. "You and Jesse, dummy!"

Lukas stared at her with wide eyes. "Jesse..." He quickly lowered his voice to a whisper. "What did she say about me?"

"Nothing."

Lukas threw the rag back at her. "Then why'd you say we were being ridiculous?!"

"The two of you are always gazing at each other like lovesick puppies when the other's back is turned. Back in those ocean worlds, when you took your skirt off and wrung the water from it, it was practically torture not to laugh at how much Jesse was gawking. And then there's her little smiles whenever you compliment her, and how she wouldn't shut up about you when you were chipped. Face it, Lukas, she likes you just as much and then some."

A little butterfly started fluttering around in his chest. "You really think so?"

"Definitely."

The thought of his feelings being returned made him smile. He had longed to have someone he could talk to for so long, and not someone like Maya or Aiden who'd be spiteful to others just for the sake of making themselves feel better.

When Jesse first made friends with Axel and Olivia, Aiden had gone to extreme lengths to tell him all about how awful she was. How, before she quit cosplaying, she'd copy the ideas of others, sabotage her rival's costumes the night before EnderCon, and hadn't a scrap of originality or decency. Lukas had believed so many of his claims that when they met face to face, he'd actually gone along with Aiden's taunts, Maya's jeers, and Gill's smug laughter.

They'd mock every one of their builds, competition after competition, year after year. It hadn't been until he realized that they were friends with Petra, saw Aiden almost set their build on fire, and watched Jesse immediately start running after Reuben into the woods, that he began to doubt himself.

And boy, had he been wrong.

Not only had every one of Aiden's lies been quashed when he spoke to her at EnderCon, she proved herself to be the kindest, loyal and most caring person he had ever known.

She rescued him from Ivor's iron golem, shared her cookie and convinced him to stay on their first night together, tried to help him and Ivor when they were arrested, always stood up for him in the White Pumpkin's mansion...and that wasn't even the half of it.

And if what Petra was saying was true–

His train of thoughts was loudly interrupted by the return of the loud thudding, this time coming in continuous bursts.

Petra groaned loudly, putting her sword away and stomping towards the staircase. "I've had enough of this," she grumbled, as she made her way upstairs, leaving Lukas to eavesdrop downstairs.

She made her way upstairs, slamming the door open when she reached the top. "Jesse, I know you take training very seriously, but could you please keep it down!" The first thing Petra noticed was that Jesse wasn't training; she was in bed. The second was that she was tossing and turning like a rag doll in a tornado. As she walked closer, she could make out inaudible mumbles and whimpers. Her annoyance quickly turned to concern.

Those so called 'sparring thuds' were actually Jesse flailing her arms as she tossed in bed, and the only thing that could have passed for a training dummy were the sandstone walls that she kept banging her hands against. Petra could already see several cracks from where she had hit herself. If she kept this up, she would end up injuring both herself and the wall.

She gently shook Jesse's shoulder, trying to wake her up. "Jesse? Jesse, wake up." The next moment she was leaping out of the way of Jesse's fists. "Jesse, come on, wake up!" She raised her voice, shaking Jesse even harder. When that failed, she grabbed hold of her shoulder and slapped her hard across the cheek.

That did the trick.

Jesse lunged forward, nearly head-butting Petra, clutching her chest and gasping for breath. Petra silently watched her look around the room and adjust to the environment. Then Jesse spotted her standing next to her bed.

"You alright?" she asked softly.

The change was instantaneous. Suddenly, Jesse had the biggest smile on her face and was getting to her feet. But Petra had seen her eyes the moment she spotted her, and the panic that lingered there. "Me? Don't worry, I'm just fine." Jesse grinned, suddenly making a beeline for the door. "Just need a bit of fresh air."

It took several seconds for the words to click in Petra's head, and by that time Jesse was already halfway down the staircase. "Jesse wait!" she cried as she ran after her. "Let's just talk about this."

"There's nothing to talk about Petra. I'm fine." She was gritting her teeth by the end of the sentence. "I just need a little air."

Lukas had gotten out of his seat the moment he heard Petra calling for Jesse. He had been heading to the staircase to see what was happening when Jesse bumped right into him. He looked down at her dazed face when he noticed a glistening streak running down her face.

"Have you been crying?" he breathed, instantly cursing himself for his choice of words as he saw Jesse's reaction. She suddenly barged past him, heading out the door in a full sprint. "Jesse!"

Petra reached the bottom of the staircase, pushing Lukas aside and following her friend into the humidity. Lukas ran after the two of them, slamming the door shut behind him.

In an instant, they had lost sight of Jesse. There was no one wearing purple armor anywhere near them. Petra cursed under her breath and kept running past the construction site around the portal. She tried looking in the sand for her tracks, but there had been so many people walking to and from in the area that it was impossible to discern whose footprints were whose.

"Petra what happened?" Lukas yelled behind her, "I thought she was sparring with a dummy!"

"I know, I thought so too! But she was in bed and–"

Petra spotted Ivor calmly walking towards them with a perplexed expression on his face. "Ivor!" He instantly looked up to see who called him.

"Oh, hello Petra. Lukas."

Lukas finally caught up to the two of them, panting heavily with his hands on his knees. Ivor gave him a strange look but was quickly distracted by Petra. "Ivor, have you seen Jesse come across here? It's urgent."

He blinked at her tone and settled his face into a deep frown. "Yes, I just saw her run past me. I tried calling to her, but she completely ignored me. Refused to even look at me!"

"Where did she go, Ivor!"

"I don't know. When I turned around to see where she'd went, she was gone! Jesse may not look like it, but she can sure run." Petra groaned angrily, kicking the sand. "Might I ask what is going on?"

"I second that Petra," Lukas piped up behind her. "You were saying something about a bed?"

"Alright Ivor, Lukas and I were in Harper's house when we heard thudding upstairs. We knew it was Jesse because she said that she would be there if we needed her. So anyway, we just thought that she was sparring with a training dummy, so I went upstairs to tell her to keep it down." Petra wiped off several beads of sweat trickling down her forehead. "But it turns out she was just dreaming, and having a nightmare by the looks of it. She was literally flailing around and hitting her arms everywhere."

"Wow." Ivor raised his eyebrows.

"So I tried waking her up, but she just kept muttering and all that. So then I slapped her and she-"

"Whoa, did I just hear you correctly? You couldn't think of any other way to wake her up so you slapped her?!"

"I didn't have a lot of options at the time Lukas!" she shot back, "Anyway, one moment she was gasping for breath, but the next she saw me and was all smiles and 'I'm just fine, I just need some air.' Then she ran outside and we lost track of her, then ran into you."

Ivor looked behind him thoughtfully. "Well, Jesse didn't get to explore the town in detail. She couldn't have gone far. Unless-" Ivor suddenly face palmed. "Oh." He groaned loudly.

"What is it?"

Ivor turned back to them with a grim face. "While I was with Harper, she gave me the full tour of the town. If I'm not mistaken, and I'm usually not, there should be a stable not too far-"

The sound of neighing and hooves cut him off, as Jesse swiftly rode past them on the back of a brown horse. They sped off into the distance, even as the three of them desperately ran after them.

"Jesse!" Petra shouted, but it was too late; both she and the horse were nothing more than a dot on the horizon. "Damn it!"

"Petra you go after her and try to keep her in your sights," Ivor said, pulling Lukas towards the stables. "We'll go get some horses!"

"Hurry!" she yelled as she sprinted down the valley.

Soon enough, Ivor and Lukas reached the stables. Unfortunately, only two horses remained: one black as midnight and the other a pastel grey. "I'll share mine with Petra. You take the other." Lukas said, mounting himself onto the black horse. He didn't wait for Ivor as he galloped out of the stable back the way they came.

It didn't take long to find Petra. She was still running as fast as she could towards the horizon. She glanced over her shoulder to see Lukas and Ivor approaching her. "Grab on!" Lukas held his arm out to her. She caught it and nimbly leaped onto the back of the saddle, holding onto Lukas' back as they sped off after their friend.