MCSM: One Shot Edition

Running Thin

Jesse's feet are dangling over a cliff, gently swinging in the chilly night time breeze. In the distance just a few blocks away, the three Wither-Storms are looming over the land. Her heart pounds as one of the heads turns her way, but the beam of light that will forever haunt her nightmares does not reach her.

She breathes a sigh of relief. They're safe.

For now.

Jesse winces as a spike of pain resonates from her temple, and she reaches up to rub it tenderly. The pain subsides, dulling to a low throb. She feels exhausted, but she knows the fight is far from over, and they've got a long way to go.

She's just not sure if she can make the push through to the end, but she has to. She will. The others need her to.

Snowflakes gently fall from the darkened, obsidian sky. She shivers slightly as a gust of wind blows, feeling grateful for Ellegaard's armour. A pang of guilt hits her knowing that the only reason she's still alive is because Ellegaard had given up her armour, at the cost of her life.

And Jesse had made that choice.

Jesse swallows thickly, trying to fight back the tears, eventually two streams trickle rapidly down her cheeks. They burn against her cold, numb skin. She buries her face in her knees and cries softly, not wanting to alert the others to her distress. She wants to be alone with the numbing grief, to cry out the pain and stress that has been slowly building up inside of her since this shit storm began.

It seems like not even she deserves that luxury.

A wet snout pushes against her hand on her ankle, and Jesse peeks out over her arm to see Reuben nudging against her. He looks up at her, dewy eyes blinking with worry. Jesse quickly reaches up to wipe the tears, but they don't stop flowing.

"I'm okay, budd-dy," Jesse sniffles, rubbing her eyes. Her breath is shaky and stuttery, but she pretends that she doesn't notice. "Go back to the others. It's t-too cold out for a little piggy like you."

Reuben puffs out his chest.

Jesse rolls her eyes. "Fine. A big piggy. It's still too cold."

He snorts, giving her a pointed glare.

"I'll b-be there in a minute," Jesse assures him. "I just... I just need some time to myself."

Reuben huffs, giving her an eye roll of his own, and bounds back towards the others. Jesse watches him from over her shoulder as he disappears into the mouth of the cave before turning back to look at the Wither-Storm.

Apparently she's only allowed two more minutes of empty silence until Reuben returns, only this time he's not alone.

"Jesse? What're you doing out here?"

Jesse glares at Reuben- like the little shit traitor that he is- before sighing and stretching out her legs. "What does it look like?" She snaps over her shoulder towards Lukas, who's standing there, completely dumbfounded at her sudden jab.

"Reuben looked worried," He says, and that's all he needs to say for her to instantly feel another wave of guilt that makes her throat constrict. Her breath quivers as she exhales and her body stiffens. Lukas' eyes widen, and she lets her head loll against her chest.

His brows furrow with concern. "I guess he was right to be." He sits down next to her, folding his legs beneath him. "What's wrong?"

"This... this whole mess is what's wrong!" Jesse exclaims. "I- I screwed up, and now we have three Wither-Storms to deal with and Petra's getting worse, and Gabriel's lost his memory and it's all my fault!"

Reuben squeals in protest, bumping his head hard against her legs.

Lukas chuckles. "Reuben's right. Jesse, there's no way any of that is your fault. Forget what Soren said- he's wrong. His stupid Formidi-bomb failed. You did the best you could've done."

"I could've done more," Jesse murmurs, putting her face in her hand. "If I had just done more, things wouldn't be this bad."

"Jesse," Lukas says sternly. "You can't possibly believe that everything that has gone wrong so far is somehow your fault."

Jesse says nothing. She bites her lip, gazing out through the falling snow to the purple-rimmed horizon.

Anger flashes behind Lukas' bright blue eyes. "That's- Jesse, that's not true, you know that, right? There's no way that can possibly be true."

"But it is true," Jesse snaps. "I made the choice to choose Ellegaard's armour, and now she's dead. I made the choice to save Petra over Gabriel, and now Gabriel can't remember shit. And I was the one who went up there in that storm voluntarily and screwed everything up! How is any of that a coincidence, Lukas? How?! Soren was right, and you know it!"

Before she realizes what's happening, her vision is flashing white, and a sharp, stinging pain resonates from the left side of her face. Her jaw falls slack and she raises a hand to her cheek, the area feeling hot against her ice-tipped fingers. Tears build in the corners of her eyes.

Lukas' eyes shut, mouth forming a tight, thin line, forehead wrinkling in distress and regret. But he says nothing as he opens his eyes again to look her dead in the eye. The message is clear. He's not fooling around.

"Jesse, none of that is your fault. Yes, you made those choices, but there was nothing you could've done to prevent the consequences that came with them. There was no way you could've stopped Ellegaard from making that sacrifice, there's no way you could've stopped the Wither-Storm from taking Gabriel, and there's no way you could've known that Petra was going to get sick, or that the Formidi Bomb was going to fail."

"But I-"

"And enough of this, 'I could've done more' bullshit. You're just one person. You can't do this alone. Jesse, you're the reason we're all still here, together. You're the reason that most of us are still alive. And you're going to be the reason that we win this fight. You're only one person, but you made us a team, and that's all we need to beat this thing."

One look in his sharp, cold eyes, and Jesse can tell that he means every word. But still, she has to be sure.

"You... you really think that I- that we can do this?" Jesse asks softly. Things are bleak, sure. Jesse has a strong feeling that they're about to get a lot worse before they get better. But Lukas' confident grin beaming at her says it all. That he can make it. That they can all make it, and that they will make it.

They'll make it through this together.

Reuben squeals next to her, giving her a fierce look of confidence, a fiery determination burning in his eyes. She's never seen that much determination in a pig before, but that's one of the things that she loves about him.

Jesse nods, fidelity surging through her once again. It's revitalizing, encouraging. She can see the light at the end of the tunnel again. Suddenly she feels she can take on anything.

Scooping the little pig up in her arms and holds him to her chest tightly. She rises to her feet, Lukas by her side. Her faith may have been running thin, and their odds look impossible, but Jesse isn't ready to give up the fight yet.

She's never been a fan of the odds anyways.

_____

Well that one was short XD

This one shot was inspired by the song up above. I basically stole some lines from it too and threw them in there. But there's so many moments in the game where Jesse needs some comfort and she just... doesn't get it, and I'm over here rolling up my sleeves like "lemme just- *casually fixes*"

The fact that Jesse remained so strong through that entire fight was just... crazy, and there's no way that what Soren did with blaming her for his failure didn't affect her somehow. So thats where this idea came from.

The Triumph really fits this one shot. Just give it a listen. :)

Please don't read and run! Leave your thoughts in the comments!

- Star