I lay there, coughing out a lung as a dizzy spell hits me despite the fact I'm laying down. I cough and cough, only to end up wheezing once I'm done. Muscles shaking even though they aren't working right now.

I raise my eyes to the sky, not that I can see anything. Just this haze of colors, so blurred that I can't really make much out unless it happens to be really big. But now that the sun is close to setting, everything has faded into this grayish mix of stuff. I definitely qualify as blind right now.

The Wither Storm roars, louder than ever. My ears, which work quite well in comparison to everything else, trying to figure it out. They sound off, like multiple roars instead of one immense roar.

Coughing again, my whole body lurching with effort, I dismiss the idea. My head almost seems to sigh, retreating back to just wallow in the headache, to stew in the fatigue aching through my body, to accept the screaming frozen limb that was once my arm.

To me only a second went by, maybe I blacked out, but I shiver when a cold wind hits me. When my eyes decide to flutter open, a gravelly groan moaning from my lungs, it's dark. I wonder if that means the monsters will kill me before the parasites. Probably be less painful that way.

I'm going to die. Holy... I can't find the strength to convince me otherwise but it's a heavy thought. I'm going to die. That just makes my heart have a harder time beating, my head throbbing that much more painfully, my body pulsing in more fatigue, my arm actually going numb a bit.

Wow, after so long, I can't even mentally support pain anymore. That, or I'm not alive enough to pay any thought to it.

Alive, I wonder if my friends think I'm still alive. They probably never had the chance to look for me, and I wouldn't be surprised if they thought that explosion killed me. It's amazing that I'm even alive at all right now. Death has been trying to grab at me for so long now.

My heart lurches in my chest, trying to turn my attention back up the mountain. Wisps of determination trying to spur me back to life. Death still hasn't gotten me yet, there's still more for me to do.

I sigh, giving into the bodily aches instead. Only a twitch running through my body at those thoughts. But my heart, my relentless beating heart, refuses to gives up. Pictures, not the blurry images I'm used to now, of my friends smiling and laughing. So full of life, so full of happiness.

They're still alive, and so am I. I have to make sure they stay that way.

Groaning, my pulse thumping within, I tighten my grip on my sword. Bracing myself as I begin to climb up the mountain. This was a hard climb last time I did this... a day ago? I don't know, but I do know that this is going to be rough.

No matter how much my throbbing heart says to not stop, that's just impossible. It's a miracle that my dead and dying legs can even support my weight at all. The fact my arm also hasn't collapsed and still hauls the sword up is yet another miracle.

A violent family of coughs explode out of my lungs, and I lean against the mountain face. All my weight on it so these stupid coughs that are basically punches to the chest now don't push me backwards. I haven't come all this way just to fall to my death. That's not how I die.

When I recover, my arm sends a frozen dagger of misery at that thought, I continue up. Hauling myself up one block at a time, my lungs wheezing as my legs wobble. I wonder how many muscles cells I have left to even give oxygen to.

Yet still, even with the sight of my friends happy so implanted in my head, it gets so difficult to keep going. Every step up I want to collapse. Even my bones so weak and heavy and weary from holding me up.

Still though, I try to push past that. But the relentless pulse of my heart starts to cough with my lungs. I know I'm not at the top yet, I won't know until I heave my body on it because I can't see crap, and I know I'm already wasting away rapidly. Especially when my heart, the engine keeping me going, starts to beat as if stone. Cold and dead stone.

I shake it away, or at least push it out of focus. So what if I'm dying? It's either dying and making a difference or just wasting away as I listen to the Wither Storm kill everything. Besides, wouldn't it be nice to actually say goodbye to my friends?

Up and up again, continuously getting slower. Wheezing and coughing as if I'm purposefully trying to kill my lungs every time I pause for a moment. The tundra of death in my arm crawling ever so terrifyingly out past my shoulder.

Dizzy spells have completely conquered my brain as I heave myself up one block at a time, kinda distorting the roars of the Wither Storm. Thank goodness I don't actually need my eyes right now and I'm constantly leaning against the mountain face or else I would be a goner right now.

In fact, if it wasn't for my sense of touch not screwed up yet, I would have never even been able to walk through the forest without hitting into a tree. I'm still capable of moving forward. I'm not down yet.

My legs can't take it anymore, falling to my knees as I keep leaning on the mountain face. Gasping and heaving for air for just a moment, before ever so slowly lifting one leg up. Setting it down and lifting the other. My right arm shaking with effort to keep me going, holding on the sword still as I push off of the ground and wall sometimes.

It's a tremendously slow and laborious process. I wouldn't be surprised if I died while climbing this damn mountain. Out of all the place Soren just had to build his fortress. Actually, out of all the places the Wither Storm is just deciding to hang out in.  

Wheezing and hacking, I lift my arm up again. Then my left leg, and then my right. Hoisting my bone weary and almost completely worn out body up. Every breath ragged and it's even a struggle for my heart to keep beating.

But I'm doing this with a purpose, I just have to remember that. This is for my friends. I can't give up on them, even if I've given up on my own life.

A soft cry forces me to collapse, almost unable to be heard over the roaring of the Wither Storm. The icicle parasites digging further to my chest, killing more of me. Making more of me black and dead. I have to keep climbing though, climbing to the top before these parasites reach my lung.

I gasp pathetically as I climb, wishing I could breath properly. Remember, I'm doing this for Olivia. My right arm threatens to fold up and never move again. But I can't let it, I have to keep going for Axel. My legs try to refuse my commands up the mountain, begging me for rest. If I rest though, what's going to happen to Rueben? My left arm always shrieking in its torturous frozen agony, beyond useless as a limb. Petra's tough, and she needs me to be tough right now too. My head sizzles with all the pressure of an exploding creeper. Yet I can't let Lukas down, not when he hasn't let me down. I can't let any of them down, I can't let the world down.

The parasites are getting so close though, and if-

I gasp, and cough, in relief when my right arm swings up and feels the top of the mountain. Not even the roars of the really close Wither Storm making a dent in my utter gratitude when I drag myself onto the ledge. A raspy, weak, gravelly chuckle wheezing out now that I'm done with that accursed mountain.

Giving my body a moment, letting my limbs stay limp and lungs desperately trying to work with my stone cold heart, I look up. Out of habit and not actually seeing anything, but hearing all sorts of craziness now that I'm here and focusing on it.

After straining for noises beneath the ferocious roars of the Wither Storm, which definitely sounds like more than just three heads, I pick on a few interesting things. Endermen being the big thing. How come I'm hearing so many endermen? Why the heck would they be here still? Wouldn't they either not care and be silent or just leave like all the other monsters? Am I just confused?

But then I hear it, the shouts of my friends. I can't tell who's there and who isn't, but definitely just the mere whispers of human shouts. I still have to get to them.

Gripping onto my sword again, I ever so slowly wobble and teeter as I haul myself up. Leaning heavily on the sword as I scoot across the ground, at a crawling pace as I get closer and closer to the Wither Strom. Making my way past the grand doors that I lean against to get through.

The parasites get closer too. I guess my body isn't putting much of a fight against them anymore. But I'm almost there. Surely I can just get to my friends now? I can even make out bleeps of a plan through the constant roaring.

The shouts suddenly stop for a moment, and I try to raise my eyes to see. Basically though, I only see black with a haze of mashed colors all around it. What just happened to my friends?

I strain my ears, not even caring about the pain anymore. Pushing away the furious roars of the Wither Storm and focusing on my friends.

"Guys!" Finally, I make out Lukas. I can barely hear him, but- "I-I can't hold on!"

A cry of terror explodes from my lungs, weak and raspy; my heart clenching as my mind conjures the picture of them caught in a beam.

I stagger forward desperately, hearing their screams but can't even see them. I stagger to them, dropping my sword as balance and wobbling legs try and try to get to them too.

But I fall, I skid across the ground. I have no clue where my sword is and every time I try to push myself up I just collapse right back down. I'm too far away to help my friends, and I'm too weak to even get them out of a beam. I can't do anything! I can't save my friends from the stupid gaze of the Wither Storm!

Gaze...

Lukas cries out, the screams of my friends driving me insane as I try to catch this idea. Gaze, gaze, gaze. I don't have to get them out of its gaze, just move the gaze away from them. That's it, now I need to find a way to get the attention of a huge world eating monster.

Too weak to scream, too weak to even stand. What the heck can I do? I have to do something? I have to, I can't just let my friends die! But get the attention of a world eating monster! How is that possible?

I don't even have my sword, just a flint and steel, some random supplies that mean nothing, and fireworks...

Fireworks!

With crazed desperation as my friends' screams get even more panicked, I grab onto fireworks buried in my pockets. Ripping them out and setting them off as soon as I possibly can.

The massive boom explodes right above me, my head splitting but I don't care as I fire off another one. Although my shrieking arm reminds me to roll out of the way before the beam picks me up.

"Jesse!" I'm relieved to hear all the voices off my friends and Reuben's squeal while my body struggles to even roll properly after firing off another off those life saving fireworks.

Someone lifts me to my feet, my legs shaking mad with no strength left to stand, dragging me to the side. My body lurching and senses swimming for a moment as everything gets thrown away.

"I'll take those." Petra rips the fireworks from my hands, someone still dragging me. "Olivia and Axel, come on! You guys have the stuff for the TNT launcher! And Axel, give me your fireworks!"

Lukas must be the one dragging me then, until my legs fold up. Unable to handle even just an ounce of my weight. I cough and wheeze, my breaths raspy as I try to say something amidst all this terror and chaos, but can't do anything as Reuben pushes me and Lukas pulls on my good arm.

We finally come to a stop, Lukas pushing me up to lean against a wall; my lungs dying as they hack and get no air. Any shard of life, of any strength, wilted and gone with that one mere act to save my friends. But hey, that was the reason for climbing up the mountain in the first place.

"Okay Jesse." I at least muffle my coughs when I raise my really heavy and really sore head towards Lukas's voice. "I'm amazed you've come this far, so you better not think about dying now. Just hang on a little longer, I gotta go help the others."

I try to say something, but only a raspy cough comes out. I nod weakly, before letting my head hang. I can't even hear his footsteps retreating, swallowed up by the storm, only his shouts to lend him some blocks.

I do hear Reuben's whines as he presses up to me. My right arm managing to lift itself just a bit for Reuben to squeeze underneath. A brief smile flickering through the explosions of my failing body. Although even it can't last.

"You guys done yet? I'm almost out of fireworks!"

Some form of terror still finds life within me, my heart throbbing as if fire, desperate to help but there's no way for me too now. I don't even know what their plan is.

"Hey boy..." I cough, trying to force the words out despite my thrashed throat. "Go support them... for me...."

Reuben whines, pressing into my side. And while it hurts, a different kind of tear tries to push its way out from my eyes.

"I know...." I cough, my lungs dying just to produce these mere raspy whispers. "I can't be there though... make sure that thing dies for me."

Reuben squeals determinedly, stands on me to push his wet nose onto mine before dashing off. Furious piggy roars as he goes to help.

Those tears finally fall, already missing Reuben's warmth and a helpless grief swirling in the chaos within me that Reuben can help while I can't. I can't do anything. Just sit here and pray that the parasites so close to my lung stay at bay for just a few more moments until my friends kill that thing.

Senses, thoughts, feelings, all of it begin to blur though. I know my friends are shouting, I know the storm is roaring, but I'm slowly letting all of that fade away.

Coughing violently, it jerks me into realizing the darkness prickling at my mind. I whimper, that darkness not lulling me to sleep. That darkness making my legs numb alongside my right arm, exhaustion now replaced with this distant cool feeling that doesn't even seem real.

I can't die now, not when I've almost seen this thing through.

I try to hang onto that thought, ignoring even the Wither Storm as I force myself to think how devastated my friends will be if I die now. I climbed up that damn mountain for them just a few moments ago, surely I have the strength just to sit and hang onto to life now?

So I force my heart to keep on beating. I force it to keep going as it has been all this time. I force it to beat even if it's stone. I'll fight this darkness with whatever deranged shards of will that have survived despite the thundering headache.

"Jesse!" Olivia, that's Olivia, my best friend. Yet I can't even lift my head anymore. "You are alive! Wait- Jesse?!"

Dull sensations flicker to my head, shoulders shaken I think. I pray that they keep talking though, I need to hang onto that. Use it to convince me to keep this darkness at bay, this growing darkness.

"Dude! Wake up! Wake up! Jesse-"

"Guys stop! He's still breathing, once Petra destroys the Command Block he'll get better and wake up. Yeah, that's- that's what'll happen. Let him rest now."

"You sure? Like, I really don't like my best friend just slumped over-"

"Of course, of course...." Every word, every drop of terror I can hear, I use it all to fight this darkness. While I can't stop it, I think it's slowing down? "Reuben even went with Petra, those two will make sure this accursed storm dies."

They go silent, and I freak out. My attention then instantly snapping to the darkness, feeling so small in front of it. So powerless and weak as it consumes my body. I can feel myself slipping into it.

"Whoa... is that a glove?" A bolt of searing, bitterly freezing agony shoots into my head, the darkness stopping at it. "Holy shit! This is his hand?! Hands aren't suppose to be black like this!"

My shoulders are shaken again, my heart having a harder time beating as the darkness gobbles up more of the exhaustion and pain. Leaving me more and more numb.

"We can't let Jesse sleep then! He could-"

"No!" My heart heaves in relief, continuing its sluggish beating as I wheeze. "We can't sap up more of his energy! Just be thankful that we can hide in this niche and don't have to have him try to dodge the Wither Storms!"

"Lukas, dude, that doesn't explain the black hand thing at all."

"It's some sickness! Petra called it Wither Sickness I think, I don't know much. Just that we need to let him rest, it'll go away once that thing dies. It has to."

"Yeah, yeah okay. This is fine then." I hang onto Olivia's mad stuttering, fueling her terror into my heart. The darkness getting so heavy. "Jesse will still live. Good, good. Fine, all good. Wither Storms die, Jesse lives. Yep, good things. Good things."

"Of course! Nothing can take down Jesse!" The nervous crackle in Axel's voice goes straight into fighting the darkness. "So what if his hand is all weird and black? Everything will be alright-"

The parasites, those stupid parasites that I've been stuck with for the longest time now, finally reach my lung.

Breathing instantly gets harder, the infected lung shuddering with each breath. I hope my heart fights the darkness itself while I focus on breathing. Oxygen, it's really hard to get oxygen right about now!

It's a fight just to inhale, my entire chest heaving and collapsing. The darkness quickly snatching up more and more of me. Hearing fading, thoughts fading, only terror and the pain blooming from my chest.

Just one breath, another painful breath. Come on, I can keep going. I can keep going. Just another burning breath.

Distantly, my heartbeat fades from my awareness. My lungs still shuddering and collapsing as more of the lung falls prey to the parasites. Air... why can't I just breathe?

The darkness takes over more and more. Until I can't feel my lungs desperately scrounging for air, just the pain of them trying to do so. Pain of them collapsing and failing within me.

Until I barely even feel that anymore, so distant. So distant... everything so numb....

Surely if I just let go everything will still be alright?

Everything will be-

Air slams into me, my lungs gasping and clawing for air at once. My head swimming as suddenly the darkness retreats, leaving me blind in the furry of senses all bombarding down on me at once.

My eyes snap open, my lungs still heaving and heart thumping dulling as massive explosions shake everything. What the heck is happening? I'm still alive? How- what- I'm so confused.

"Petra did it!" Happy shouts pierces into my brain, along with those booms still rattling me up. "The Wither Storms are dead!"

Someone, Olivia I believe, shakes my shoulder. "Jesse! You're not dying! Are you better? You-"

"Heck yeah he's better! Just look at his hand!" Axel yanks me to my feet, dragging me as my balance still swirls chaotically around me. "We gotta get to Petra! Come on! Come on!"

Dead...? The Wither Storm, storms apparently, are dead? Finally? Does this mean-

I'm pulled downhill, my body not prepared for that at all. I immediately trip over my feet, my body flailing as I hit rock after rock. The air I'm still so desperate for flying out of me until I get to the bottom. Where I lay gasping, more confused and bewildered than I was a moment ago.

"Whoa Jesse?" Axel, gently this time, hoists me back to my feet. "You good? I didn't mean to get carried away-"

"I'm fine." I gasp, is that my voice? Sure it still sounds awful, but it actually sounds like me again! "I-I-I-"

The sickness is gone! Joy flutters through my body, although my legs still wobble and shake. I ignore that, since Axel is still supporting me anyway. I gotta congratulate Petra and then take the longest nap of my life! Apparently I still need that.

I smile, gasping and blinking as the world slowly comes back into focus. It's slow, but I'm going to see again! Yes! I need to hug Petra right away!

"To Petra, to-"

Axel whoops the moment I say it, dragging me along despite the cries of my other two friends. An insane smile and delirious chuckle covering up the wake of destruction still inflicted on my body.

"Guys, it's dead!" Petra rushes to us first, my eyes already able to make out her red hair next to her... blue clothes and hat? "That stupid wither is finally freakin' dead!"

"Petra!" My voice, still grating, rasps with joy. "You did it! That's so-"

A squeal stops me in my tracks. Weak and raspy. Sounds just like me whenever I tried to talk before the sickness left, when I was on death's door.

But now it isn't me.

"No..." My heart lurches and clenches beating frantically as I grasp for air, Axel still mainly carrying me as I'm desperate to get to him. "Oh no, no no no no no..."

When my eyes, my eyes that finally work again, show me Reuben- his pink skin more gray than ever as he's limp-

"No!" I burst from Axel, my legs wobbling and shaking and staying strong right until I get closer to Reuben. Collapsing under me when I reach him. "Reuben, oh no... Reu- Reuben?"

I only get soft whimpers in response, a strangled sob hiccuping out. Reuben... my Reuben, whining as he lifts his head, trying to get a foot beneath him. My vision blurred again as tears I didn't know I had left in me spill out, gently raising my right arm to stroke his head.

"There there boy, you're good." My heart shudders and shatters when he collapses back down with only a faint huff. "You're the best actually. Th- The best of the best... you know that?"

Reuben oinks, so very soft and so very weak, pushing lightly against my hand... until he goes limp. His darkness winning.

All over again it's a struggle to breath, my lungs shuddering and collapsing as I stare with my tear blurred vision at my friend. Until in a cloud of smoke, he puffs. Only leaving behind a raw pork chop.

Both of my hands shake as I go out to pick him up. Cradling the last remains of my friend to my chest. My left arm finally alive again... only to hold my dead friend.

A sob shatters the silence, one after another crying out. Jerking inside just like the most violent of coughs. Thrashing my throat all over again, my head pounding as grief bursts from my heart. I couldn't save him. I asked him to go risk his life for me.

My muscles shake even though they aren't working right now.