Into The Game [FINISHED]

37 ✣ Refuge

We had found a cave, it wasn't much but it was safe, and we had gotten quite a ways away from the storm, yet we could still see it in the distance. It's roars sounded like thunder. I panted as I entered the cave.

"We made it! We actually freaking made it!" I exclaimed.Petra walked over to me, she was clutching her infected arm.

"Jesse, I'm worried about Gabriel, if he was inside the Wither Storm, he could have Wither Sickness, like me" Petra said weakly.

"I don't know, he's never been acting the way you've been acting" I replied I walked over to the amnesiac. He was leaning against the wall of the cave, his leg up against the wall. Looking at him closer, he did look sick. "Hey, how are you feeling?" I asked him.

"I-I'm afraid I don't feel much like myself at the moment..." Gabriel replied.

"Gabriel! It really is you!" Soren exclaimed.

"Oh! If I knew anybody could outrun death, it would be you" Ellegaard smiled at the warrior.

"Who are you people?!" Gabriel panicked.

"It's me! Ellegaard! Come on...!" Ellegaard exclaimed, her voice full of sorrow.

"Old friend... don't you recognize us?" Soren asked "It's Soren... we've known each other for... a very long time..."

"The Wither Storm did something to him" I told Soren.

"You mean that thing we just rode on?!" Gabriel asked.

"No, that was a horse" I told him.

"What a terrible turn of events..." Soren murmured.

"You... you're the one who rescued me!" Gabriel exclaimed "Tell me please, what's going on? I remember only blackness, and then... suddenly you were there."

"You were caught in the Wither Storm, trapped" I told him.

"For how long?" he asked.

"Long enough that it did this to you" I answered.

"It felt like an eternity" Gabriel murmured "It was dark, and foul... and I was sure I was a goner."

"Well..." Soren put his hand on Gabriel's shoulder "You aren't, you made it back alive, which is... more than I can say for some of us..."

"Oh... Magnus... for a second there, I almost managed to forget..." Ellegaard sighed, tears began to form in her eyes.

"You guys talking about Magnus?" Lukas asked.

"I still can't believe he's gone... I guess those manuals we got were true, you die here, and you're gone forever..." Axel sighed.

"How...? How could this have happened?!" Soren asked "To loose not just a friend... but a member of the Order of the Stone!"

"All I know he'd want us too keep fighting, no matter what" I told Soren.

"And for us to keep blowing the crap out of stuff!" Axel exclaimed. Ellegaard gave a small chuckle.

"You're right, he would" she sighed. Soren cried out in frustration.

"Being emotional it getting us nowhere!" Soren snapped " What I want to know is what happened out there today?! Why is that thing still alive?!" Soren asked.

"And you're asking me that?!" I asked in a snap.

"Excuse me?!" Soren narrowed his eyebrows "You're the one who crafted that stupid bomb, what happened?!"

"Look, all I know it that the Formidi Bomb wasn't strong enough to kill the Wither Storm, and the Command Block is still out there" I calmed down.

"Wait... the Command Block? Blast! So... that cursed block is still in control?"

"Yes" I nodded.

"I need time to think about all this..." Soren stormed out of the cave.

"Hey, Jesse, why don't you go and talk to Soren?" I nodded and walked outside. Soren was standing on the edge of a small cliff, staring off at the raging Wither Storm in the distance. I slowly approached him.

"Soren? You okay?" I questioned.

"I told you, I just need some space, Jesse..." Soren murmured, not looking at me.

"Actually you said you need time to think, well, did you think of anything?" I asked him.

"Not really..." Soren replied and didn't say another word. When I walked back inside, I saw Lukas digging through a chest, mumbling things to himself.

"Gravel? No. Dirt? Don't think so..." he closed the chest and turned his head to me. "Oh, hey, Jesse."

"What are you doing?" I questioned.

"I'm going to go and find the other Ocelots" Lukas told me.

"What? But the Ocelots... aren't they-"

"Dead? No, Gabriel gave me the only solid proof they're alive" I said nothing "When you were out talking to Soren, Gabriel recognized my jacket when he was thrown from the Wither Storm."

"Lukas..."

"I'm sorry, Jesse" Lukas sighed "Look, we've had some great times together, and I'd even consider us friends, but I need you to understand why I need to go and help my old friends."

"And the best you can do for them now is help us stop this disaster" I told him.

"I guess you're right... alright, I'll stay" Lukas said.

"Thank you, Lukas" I smiled and he smiled back.

"That's what I said isn't it?" a familiar voice sounded off somewhere.

"Oh, just as you once 'helped' us before?" I heard another voice and walked outside.

"This isn't about the past it's about the future!"

"There are three of those things now!"

"You say that like it's my fault!"

"It is your fault!"

"Oh take responsibility for once!"

"I did that by locking the Command Block away."

"So only you could use it!"

"My god... do you still not realize how dangerous it is?"

"Oh, the bitter irony 'Soren the Architect'" Now it became obvious who one of the voices was.

"I do not need lectures from you!"

"That's debatable."

"Maybe you should leave."

"If I do that, the world falls."

"Oh, oh, oh, I forgot, you have a plan!"

"Why am I even bothering?"

"Why are you?!" I climbed a ladder which led me straight to the voices, and those belonged to Soren as I had heard before, and Ivor.