The grass felt soft beneath Jesse's bare feet, the sun beating down on her arms and legs warm. She closed her eyes, taking in a slow, deep breath of the fresh air. It felt good to be outside again.

After what happened between her and Petra during the night, Jesse's simply confined herself to the small space between the four walls of her bedroom. It had started feeling like a prison, but it was also her safe space. A tiny corner of the world where she couldn't hurt anybody.

Jesse's spent what was left of the night, staring up at her bedroom ceiling. She hasn't been able to sleep, or even start feeling tired for that matter. It took Jesse a few hours to realise that she probably no longer needed to sleep, needed to eat. And with that realisation it dawned on her that she was also suddenly immortal.

Stopping, Jesse reached up to rake her hands through her hair. No, no, no, she came there to get the thoughts out of her mind, not get further lost in them!

Jesse knew her friends wouldn't like the idea of her leaving the Order Hall like that, but she snuck out with sunrise. She needed to clear her head, get away from everything.

It was so unlike her to want space instead of comfort.

Jesse sunk down on the grass against a tree, leaning her head onto her knees and closing her eyes. Getting in and out of Beacontown without being recognised wasn't hard, and there wouldn't be anybody out in the surrounding forests. It felt good to know she was alone, she could think out loud, she could... try things.

Opening her eyes again, Jesse looked down at her pinkish hands. She wondered how Romeo did it, used his powers. If accidentally burning Petra proved anything, it was that she too had the abilities he did. There was so much more to it than she initially imagined.

Biting her lip, Jesse coiled her hands into tight fists. No, she... she didn't want to know what she was capable of. She wanted to get rid of her powers, she didn't want to be an admin. And that meant not accepting her powers, not embracing them.

Crossing her arms over her knees again, Jesse buried her face into them. She felt so lost, so out of place. Like she didn't belong there.

"We thought you were dead! You weren't breathing, your heart wasn't beating!"

Jesse shook her head, biting her lip as she remembered her friend's words.

"She was dead. Heartbeat gone, I had held her limp body in my arms."

The red haze began returning to her eyes as Jesse shook her head again. No, she... she didn't feel that way because she was meant to be dead, right?

"Jesse will die, but the Admin won't."

With a pained cry, Jesse slammed her hand down onto the grass. Tears were collecting in her glowing eyes. She refused to accept it, she was still her. The real Jesse didn't die, this wasn't the admin in her place. No, no, no!

Jesse's nose twitched at the smell of smoke. Her gaze drifted down to where her hand was, the grass around her clenched fist shrivelling up.

Ripping her hand back, Jesse stared down at the patch of scorched grass with wide eyes, gasping. How the hell was she even doing it?

Quickly scrambling to her feet, Jesse stared down at her pale, pinkish hands. She gulped thickly, flexing her fingers. If only she understood how she was doing what she was doing, she could figure out how to stop doing it.

"This is fucking pointless!" Jesse screamed, grasping handfuls of her chestnut hair. "I never asked for any of this!"

Tears were cascading down her face, her eyes glowing a bright red. Jesse's heart pounded wildly inside her chest, the world around her spinning. It felt like she was loosing it, spiralling into insanity. A type of frustration and rage that she's never experienced before pulsed through her veins.

She wanted to hurt something, she wanted to kill something.

Shrieking in frustration, Jesse threw herself at the tree she was standing against. Her shoulder slammed into it with enough force that it would have fractured something under normal circumstances. But Jesse didn't feel a smidge of pain.

Jesse sunk down onto the ground, covering her head with her arms as if she could hide away from herself. Flames danced at her finger tips, the field of power surrounding her making the tall grass sway.

Feelings, emotions and just pure magic swirled within Jesse, ringing in her ears 'till the point where she could no longer make out her own, raspy sobs.

She felt so unbelievably out of control.

"Just end this!" Jesse screamed up at the sky, her voice echoing through the trees. "Just end this! Please!"

Her breath was racing, heartbeat pounding uncontrollably inside her chest. Panting, Jesse looked down at her hands that were glowing like hot coals. Heat radiated off them.

Jesse's eyes darted down to a small, sharp rock that was protruding from the ground beside her. Slowly she reached down, allowing her fingers to touch the stone.

Almost instantly, the rock started to melt. Dissolving beneath Jesse's touch until it was a molten puddle hardening on the ground.

Jesse gulped thickly. She felt sick, she felt frightened. She was scared of herself at that moment. What other horrible abilities did she possess?

"No!"

Jesse staggered back, shaking her head.

"No! I don't want to know!"

She refused, refused to learn how to use her powers. She couldn't give in, she couldn't accept that she was a monster.

Control it. Just control it.

Clenching her fists, Jesse balled her hands back into tight fists. Her powers strained against her, begging to be let free with the hurricane of emotions storming inside of her.

But Jesse suppressed it, forcing her powers back and standing her ground against her emotional will.

Fresh tears welled up in Jesse's eyes as she sunk to her knees, wrapping her arms around herself in a shielding matter. She was shaking, her breaths trembling.

But no matter how much of her strength it sapped, Jesse held the emotions roaring inside her at bay. Suppressing them, forcing them down and allowing them to build up inside her with no way of being let free.

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

Petra bolted upright in bed with a sharp inhale, her blues eyes wide and panicked. Her head snapped to the side as she looked around, fearfully taking in where she was and what was going on around her.

The moment she recognised the familiar bedroom she was in, Petra's tense form relaxed. She allowed herself to collapse back onto the bed with a large exhale of relief.

Add that to the list of many reasons she didn't want to sleep. The battle with Romeo was still fresh in her mind, and the whole new problem with Jesse rested on top of that. There was no way she was going to sleep peacefully with everything that's happened.

Petra opened her eyes again, gazing up at the roof. The room was dark, a dim yellow glow peeking through a gap in her closed curtains. Later afternoon. That meant she's had at least three or four hours of sleep since the last dream.

Shaking her head, Petra sat upright an flung her legs over the side of the bed. She reached up, raking her fingers through the messed up strands of red hair that dangled in front of her eyes. Stifling a yawn, Petra pulled her signature bandanna over her head and stood up from the bed.

As much as she hated the unpleasant dreams that sometimes plagued her after a difficult battle, Petra didn't let them get to her too easily. Still, it made the desire to go back to sleep much less.

Whatever. Petra thought to herself, stretching out her stiff limbs as she walked across the room towards the door. I managed to get a few hours in. That should be enough to get Lukas off my case.

Despite her initial reluctance for getting some rest, Petra had to admit that she felt better. A lot better. It was amazing what a few hours of sleep could do.

Loud voices coming from the ground floor of the order hall caught Petra's attention. She frowned, slowly making her way down the stairs. What had them all riled up? She hadn't even been there to start anything!

"Let's just all calm down and we can figure this out!" Lukas's voice rose above the commotion.

"How? We have no idea where to even look!" Axel responded angrily.

"What if anybody saw her-" The rest of Radar's sentence got drowned out by the other's voices.

"Okay, what's going on in here?" Petra asked, stepping in the kitchen where the commotion was coming from.

"Great, time for the tension to rise even more." Olivia muttered from where she was sitting at the table.

"Now is not the time for you two to get at each other's throats." Lukas said seriously, holding his hand up as Petra began opening her mouth.

He cast her a guilty, almost apologetic glance.

"Jesse's disappeared."

"What?!" Petra exclaimed, feeling the colour drain from her face. "When? How?? You promised to keep an eye on her!"

"I think she was gone before you even went to bed." Lukas said, taking a hand through his blonde hair. "I was here all day, she didn't leave her bedroom. I finally got worried and checked on her, to find the room empty."

Petra leaned back against the wall, pinching the bridge of her nose with two fingers. She couldn't decide whether she regretted going to sleep, or getting up.

"We need to find her." Radar spoke up shakily, his voice sounding small and frail. "What if she's spotted out in town?"

"Jesse's smart, she wouldn't let herself get seen." Petra said thoughtfully, lifting her head again.

"Petra's right." Lukas said, looking between the others. "We shouldn't assume the worse. Jesse might just have needed some fresh air."

Petra bit her lip worriedly. She wanted to agree with Lukas, but after seeing the state their friend was in the previous day, she couldn't help but be terrified. At that moment Jesse wasn't okay mentally, and who knew what her newfound powers could do to her?

"This is such a mess." Olivia said, rubbing her temples stressfully. "We've been combing bookshelves all morning without finding anything, and now Jesse's run off to who knows where."

"I wish we could just start acting instead of procrastinating." Petra said through gritted teeth. "If Jesse went off looking for a solution on her own, I wouldn't even blame her."

"Petra, we don't know where to even start." Lukas pointed out. "Olivia is right, this isn't something we can blindly run into."

"Well maybe we could try looking for clues in the real world instead of unreliable books." Petra said, crossing her arms. "The terminal space, Romeo's tower, somewhere!"

"Jack and Nurm combed the tower, there's nothing." Radar replied.

"And I think we can all agree that going back into the terminal space is a bad idea." Lukas said seriously. "If what Romeo said is true, the place runs on his powers. Jesse's powers, now. Powers she can't exactly control yet."

Petra clenched her jaw, frustration surging through her veins. There had to be something they could do!

The sound of a door opening somewhere caught everybody's attention. Thy exchanged glances, listening as it closed again. Petra was the first to push herself off the wall she was leaning again, stepping out of the kitchen. The others quickly followed her example.

A figure was silently creeping through the living room, expertly stepping where the planks wouldn't creak beneath their weight. Despite the hoodie they wore, covering their face, it was easy to recognise them.

"Jesse?" Lukas asked, first to speak.

Jesse stopped in her tracks, jolting slightly. The hand at her side curled itself into a tight fist, her shoulders raising as she took a deep breath.

"Where were you?" Petra asked, trying to keep her voice from sounding hostile in any way.

Taking another deep breath, Jesse turned to face them. There was a stone cold expression on her face, the stains of old tears still somewhat visible across her rosy skin. Strands of tangled chestnut hair dangled in front of her glowing eyes, the bright red colour obscuring her usually beautiful copper irises.

"Is everything okay?" Lukas asked, uncertainly.

"I just went for a walk."

Jesse's response came off blunt and cold, but beneath the stiff response was a visible tremble of fear, sadness. She was upset, and trying to hide it. Visibly.

"You had us all worried sick." Olivia said softly. "With everything that's going on, you can't just disappear off."

Jesse's eyes narrowed, her muscles tightening. Anger danced in her eyes.

"Are you sure everything is okay?" Petra asked, slowly approaching Jesse.

Her tone was gentle, blue eyes swimming with worry. Still, Jesse edged back from Petra. The glow in her eyes significantly brightened, fists clenching. The more cornered she felt, the more her body throbbed with the strain of holding her powers back.

No, everything isn't okay.

Her gaze alone spoke those words.

Petra stopped, recognising Jesse's body language. Somehow, Petra's actions was making her feel threatened.

"We're just trying to help, bud." Axel said softly.

"Then please..." Jesse's voice was quivering. "Please leave me alone."

"Jesse..." Olivia sounded hurt by her friend's request.

"Please." Jesse pressed back further against the wall, the glow in her eyes brightening.

Her gaze darted between everybody, feeling surrounded. Jesse's ears had gone deaf to their words, her only goal to get out of the room and away from their prying eyes.

"Just back off!"

It didn't feel like Jesse had control over her words, much less her actions. She raised her hands, in more of defensive manner than anything else. But it was still an attack, the closest of her friends suddenly pushed back with invisible rush of air.

Axel grabbed Olivia before she fell, while Lukas grabbed onto the wall to keep himself upright. Petra only just managed to stay on her feet, her legs splayed out beneath her for balance. She looked up at Jesse with wide eyes, not having expected the attack.

Jesse looked equally started by her own actions, looking down at her hands before directing her gaze up at her friends again. And then she did the only thing she could think of.

She ran.

"Jesse, wait!" Petra began, as her friend bolted up the stairs.

"Wait." Lukas said softly, grabbing Petra's arm to stop her. "I think she needs to be alone right now."

"No." Petra shook her head, bundling her hands into tight fists. "Isolation always makes it worse, if we keep standing back-"

"If we don't she's going to hurt us." Olivia said softly, backing away. "That... that isn't Jesse."

"How could you say that?" Petra exclaimed, turning to face the engineer with exasperation written across her face. "She's your friend!"

"Calm down, both of you." Lukas said, raising his hands.

He looked back up in the direction Jesse had disappeared off to, unsure of which of the girls he sided with. Maybe Olivia was right, maybe... maybe whatever. Petra was right too, they couldn't just give up on her.

But even if it still was Jesse underneath all those new emotions, how were they ever going to help her?

___

I am so sorry for making you guys wait this long! This chapter was meant to come out on Thursday, but time seriously got away from me. Pile studying, computer problems, and an immense amount of stress of top of that, and this just completely slipped my mind. Technically it still came out this week, so I didn't exactly go off schedule, but I still feel a little bad. Expect two chapters next week!

We're getting really close to a drastic turn of events... Jesse's losing more and more control by the hour, while some of her friends are already starting to loose hope.

This is your last chance to lay down some theories before a big game changer, so I look forward to hearing your guys' predictions!

See you next week with chapter 5!