Petra had forgotten just how awful the underneath was. The air was heavy and hot, with a constant smell of smoke that made breathing difficult. The bedrock didn't let any light in, but instead of the Oasis growing completely dark like the Keep, everything was bathed in a gloomy, orange glow from all the lava. Even though the air was still with no breezes or wind, it only took minutes for the dust to find its way into everybody's clothes.

"I don't understand." Petra said, as she walked down the dusty clay path with legs like jelly. "Xara had seemed set on wanting to rebuild this place."

"Maybe... maybe the Oasis was beyond repair." Jesse said softly, sounding equally confused. "Maybe she gave up."

"It would be disheartening to any builder to see a place they built up from nothing, broken down into this." Lukas said, sounding devastated. "I can't say I would blame her. It would take one person alone a lifetime to rebuild this."

Petra stopped, flinching as she reached up to hold one of her shoulders. It was becoming impossible to forget about what happened in the Sea Temple.

"Petra?" Lukas asked, noticing the redhead's discomfort. "Feeling alright?"

"Yeah." Petra replied, beginning to walk again. "My arms just feel like lead, is all."

"Where else could Xara have gone?" Jesse asked in exasperation.

"Fred's Keep, maybe?" Lukas suggested.

"I don't think so." Petra said, biting her lip. "You didn't know Xara, Lukas, but I can't envision her walking into Fred's Keep and being welcome with open arms."

She looked to the side and gestured to a broken structure. "And the portal is exactly the way we left it, either that Enderman really hates the left corner, or Xara hasn't touched it again."

"What about the cabin?" Jesse suddenly asked, turning to face Petra again. "Think she'd go back there?"

"Considering how she reacted when you returned her bed to her, I'd say that's a definite possibility." Petra responded, nodding. "That place clearly meant as much to them, as our treehouse did to us."

"Where is this cabin?" Lukas asked warily.

"On the other side of the underneath." Jesse responded miserably.

"I can't even walk that distance on foot on a regular day." Petra said softly, looking down at the ground. "There's no way I'm going to be able to do it with how I feel right now."

"We should have used the compass!" Jesse exclaimed in frustration, turning away from her friends and raking her hands through her hair. "The Keep is a lot closer to the cabin than this!"

"Jesse, calm down." Lukas said softly, beginning to reach a hand out to rest it on her shoulder. He seemed to rethink that action, pulling his hand back again.

"We wouldn't have known to go to the cabin then." Petra pointed out, heavily sitting down on a broken brick column. "It would have doubled the trip, because we would have travelled all the way here, only to backtrack."

"I guess you have a point." Jesse muttered, her shoulders sinking. There was fresh red glow tainting her eyes.

"We'll just have to divide the trek there into shorter bits." Lukas said, tapping his chin thoughtfully as he turned to look into the distance. "The Keep could serve as a halfway mark. We'll break frequently on the way there, spend a night, then do the same for the last stretch."

"We don't have much of a choice." Petra agreed, although the thought of all that travelling filled her with dread.

Jesse didn't say anything, continuing to pace up and down the short strip of dry ground between the group and the nearest dilapidated building. Her eyes were still glowing.

"We'll rest first." Lukas said, turning to face the others again.

"Lukas, I'm fine, we can go." Petra said softly, knowing that Lukas wanted to stop for her sake.

"Petra, you don't have to pretend you're okay." Lukas said, sympathetically. "Waiting a few hours won't kill us."

"Lukas is right." Jesse said, speaking again. "You need to at least get over the initial shock of the attack before even thinking of travelling. I'll go and look for resources in the meantime."

As much as Petra wanted to argue, she couldn't deny that she really wanted to stay off her feet for a bit. Even though she was acting like it didn't bother her, the burns on her back hurt like hell. Silently she was really glad they insisted on taking a break.

"I'll meet you guys back here in a few hours." Jesse said to Lukas, beginning to stride away. "Both of you should get some rest."

"Will you be okay on your own?" Lukas asked, following Jesse to the edge of the Oasis.

"I'll be fine, I'm just going to look for food and stuff like that, whatever the Underneath has to offer." Jesse replied, not turning to face Lukas as she continued walking.

In all honesty, she wanted some time alone so she could rid herself of the newly awoken power pulsing through her veins.

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

Petra had, by some miracle, managed to get a few hours of sleep. It wasn't the most comfortable rest, but she felt significantly better afterwards. Her internal clock had completely stopped working by the time she woke up, having no idea about what time it was on the surface.

Jesse had returned from her walk by the time Petra woke up, although she came back empty handed. She claimed she couldn't find any food, although Petra suspected Jesse hadn't really been looking. Not that she minded much, her appetite next to non-existent.

"Do we know where to go from here?" Lukas asked, looking between the others. The sleepy tone of his voice suggested he had also taken the opportunity to rest.

"In that direction." Jesse said, gesturing towards the clay mountains ahead of them. "There's an old minecart system that we could follow to the Keep, but on foot. The tracks are way too unstable to use the minecarts."

Petra shuddered, remembering what had happened the first time they took those tracks and the group got split up. She didn't know exactly what happened to Jesse and Jack when she, Radar and Nurm got separated from them, but they were soon reunited with a devastated, heartbroken Jesse, alone. Petra had been convinced she'd never see him again, but the old adventurer survived and tracked the group down again. Still, it wasn't a pleasant memory.

"The towns are all fairly close to each other, fortunately." Jesse went on. "On foot and at a walk I would say... maybe two hours between here and Fred's Keep?"

"That doesn't sound too bad." Lukas said, looking between Jesse and Petra.

"Then let's get moving." Petra said, her voice lacking the enthusiasm she wanted to convey. "This a part of the journey I'd really like to get over with, and quick."

Both the others nodded, before they all began walking away from the downed city in silence. Lukas kept glancing over to Petra, noticing that she was still moving with difficulty despite getting some rest. Not only was her limp was a lot more noticeable, but her skin had grown pale and her blue eyes housed an expression of pain. He silently wondered how much the guardian strike actually hurt, even though Petra constantly claimed that it didn't.

"I'm so glad there hasn't been any signs of that giant enderman." Jesse noted, her brown eyes scanning the surrounding area. "I wonder if the people of Fred's Keep took it down after all the damage it did?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about, but a giant enderman doesn't sound like something I'd want to meet." Lukas said, shuddering.

"Believe me, you don't." Petra muttered.

It was quiet in the red mountains, the only sound being the occasional squeak of a bat fluttering past, or a zombie growling in the distance. Petra didn't take much note of the silence, simply keeping her mind focussed on the task of walking. Her back throbbed lightly with every step she took, her tired feet dragging beneath her. She loathed knowing that, while nobody had said it, she was the group's weakest link at that moment.

Jesse on the other hand, was on edge. Of course their last trip down that route had been at high speed on the noisy tracks, fleeing from a roaring Enderman, but she still didn't like how quiet everything was. It was too quiet, way too quiet. There was an uncomfortable tension weighing down the smoke filled air. She felt nervous and jumpy, although that could easily be blamed on her powers.

"Everything alright, Jesse?" Lukas asked beside her all of a sudden.

He had fallen into stride beside her, blue eyes looking at her worriedly. Petra had fallen to the back of the group, trudging along tiredly.

"It's not me, it's this whole place." Jesse said softly, looking around. "Something about it feels off."

"Off how?" Lukas asked suspiciously.

"I can't put my finger on it, but it just... I don't know, doesn't seem right." Jesse whispered, her voice unintentionally dropping lower with every word. "It's like I keep expecting something to jump out at us unexpectedly."

A sudden grunt behind them stopped Jesse and Lukas in their tracks, looking back. Petra was tiredly leaning against the sandstone wall of the cliff they had been walking against, her eyes closed and the majority of her weight positioned onto her left leg. Sweat flecked her pale face.

"I just tripped over something, I'm fine." Petra said, seeming to feel her friends' eyes on her without looking up at them.

"How long have we been walking for, surely we can take a break?" Lukas asked, to which Jesse quickly nodded.

"Guys, I'm fine, really." Petra said, waving a hand at them. "We don't have to stop now."

"It's going to be a bigger mess if you collapse from overexertion, sit down." Lukas insisted, offering Petra a hand to help her over to a rock. "Stop being so stubborn."

The eeriness of their surroundings had recaptured Jesse's attention, and she stopped listening to her friends. She walked a few steps away, scanning the bleak dark horizon suspiciously. A swarm of butterflies had collected in her stomach, that same exact feeling she always got before something was about to go horribly wrong.

On cue, something came right at them from somewhere within the mountains. Jesse didn't see the arrow before it was too late, meeting her square in the stomach. The blow knocked her back a couple of feet, barely hearing the surprised and panicked calls from Lukas and Petra.

Jesse stumbled back onto the ground, looking down at the arrow that was protruding through the ripped denim of her overalls with wide eyes. Her heart was beating wildly inside her chest as she grabbed it with shaky hands, ripping it out. Not a droplet of blood was visible on the clear arrowhead, although without her powers the blow would have been a fatal one.

"Where did that come from?" Petra asked, her voice rising a few pitches in panic as she looked around anxiously.

"I don't know." Jesse admittedly dazedly as she got to her feet, tossing the arrow aside.

"It's a freaking admin!" A voice called from somewhere in the mountains.

"No way it can be, that's the same scrawny prisoner who passed through here last time!"

"I'm telling you, it's an admin!"

"Look, he's right! It isn't even bleeding."

"Scavengers." Jesse growled, her eyes narrowing. She couldn't help but note how she was immediately referred to as an it.

"Scavengers?" Lukas asked anxiously, reaching for his bow.

"You mean the same little shits who refused to help you and Jack without taking your weapons?" Petra asked, Miss Butter already raised.

"We don't have anything of value!" Jesse called out, protectively standing in front of her friends. "Just let us pass!"

A few figures became visible in the distance, merely shapes obscured by the smoke. Two of them carried bows, while another one held a stone sword, and the final figure clutched what looked like an axe.

"I beg to differ, I see a pretty golden sword I like." The figure at the front said in a voice Jesse found hauntingly familiar. "Pass it over, and we'll consider letting you live."

"Over my dead body!" Petra growled, tightening her grip on her weapon.

"Uh, are we really still threatening them?" One of the other figures asked in a hushed whisper. "That one in the front is clearly an admin! Look at the eyes!"

"Yes, I now carry Romeo's powers." Jesse said in a low voice, beginning to raise one of her hands. "Don't make me use them."

She was bluffing, she knew that. Jesse had never deliberately struck another person before, in fact she didn't even know if she could. But she hoped they would fall for it.

A visible ripple of fear passed through the scavengers, hushed whispers and arguments erupting. The one with the axe had already backed away and disappeared into the smoke, and one of the ones with a bow seemed to be considering the same move.

"She's obviously the hero type!" The one in the front growled at their companions. "She won't hurt a fly, much less one of us. Especially after what happened last time!"

Jesse gritted her teeth, feeling her heart start to race. They weren't wrong about that either, hurting them would be a complete last resort.

Suddenly more of the scavengers backed away, the hushed whispers growing louder. Jesse's confusion was quickly cleared when she realised the glow of her eyes were probably growing brighter. While it was solely because she had started to panic, the scavengers read it as her getting ready to attack. Two more of them slunk off, leaving only the leader.

"Get lost." Jesse growled, stepping closer to them.

She tried to summon as much of her old hatred for the scavenger as she could, hoping her eyes would continue to glow brighter. Unfortunately that also brought on a fresh torrent of power rippling through her limbs. If she wasn't careful, she could easily lose control.

"I'm not scared of you, pipsqueak." The scavenger threatened, not lowering his bow. "One more chance, give me your sword, or else."

"You're not taking anything." Jesse said, raising both her hands. "And if I were you, I'd get out of here as fast as-"

Jesse didn't get a chance to finish her threat when somebody leapt on her from behind, tackling her into the dust. The last two scavengers hadn't fled, but circled around instead, attacking the group from behind.

Despite having taken her by surprise at first, the scavenger was no match for Jesse. His sword didn't do much else than tear her clothes, and was quickly fought from his grip. Before he knew what was happening, Jesse was the one towering over him with his own stone blade pointed at his throat. Her eyes glowed vibrantly.

Scrambling up from the dirt, the scavenger ran. Jesse tossed the sword off the cliff side, bolting back to where her friends were. Most of the scavengers were quickly scattering at her return, but the bravest stayed and fought. There were a lot more than the four she initially thought they were dealing with.

Petra's breath was racing. She was naturally an excellent fighter, but at that moment her skills did her no good. After more than a year of not touching her sword she was horribly out of practice, not to mention the disadvantage that came with her injuries. Her legs were weak with exhaustion beneath her, while her back and shoulders pulsed from the guardian strike.

The first few scavengers were nothing, Miss Butter cut through their stone and wood blades like, well, butter. But the fourth scavenger who came at her caught Petra by surprise, kicking her right leg out beneath her. She would have rolled right off the ledge they were on, had it not been for the very sword that started the whole fight. Petra plunged the golden blade between two cracks of the sandstone, holding onto the helm with both hands. Her left leg beat the air desperately, while her right had gone completely limp.

Petra looked up desperately, sweat trailing across her pale face as she struggled to hold on. Her arms were strong, under normal circumstances she could effortlessly support her own body weight. But it felt like the limbs were both turning to jelly, pain pulsing from the injury on her back and weakening her grasp. There was no way she could hold on.

The scavenger who had thrown Petra off was approaching again, grinning maniacally as she aimed her bow at the defenceless warrior. However before she could do anything, somebody crashed into them from the side, the two of them disappearing in the cloud of dust. Petra instantly recognised the scream that followed.

Lukas's scream immediately caught Jesse's attention, whirling around in the direction it came from. Her eyes landed on the blonde seconds later, where he was collapsed in the dust. An arrow was lodged in his shoulder, and the scavenger responsible was already pointing the next at him.

"NO!"

Jesse launched forward, a hand shooting out. She was in no control of her actions as a beam of light shot from her palm, hitting the scavenger and sending him flying. She could feel her breath catch in her throat as he rolled a few feet before coming to a stop, body limp and unmoving.

It felt like everything had gone into slow motion. The scavengers had instantly backed off, the sudden and unexpected death of one of their members immediately causing them to retreat. Jesse watched breathlessly as they scattered, disappearing into the smoke.

Trying not to think about what she's done, Jesse ran to Lukas's side. The blonde was gasping breathlessly as he sat up, face contracted in pain as he clutched his shoulder, an arrow still sticking out of it.

"Are you okay?" Jesse asked desperately as she knelt beside her friend, knowing that the answer was really no.

"Petra." Lukas choked out, shaking his head at Jesse's question. "Where's Petra?"

Jesse's head shot up, eyes desperately searching the scene for their friend. Petra was nowhere in sight, but Jesse's eyes came to land on her golden sword, embedded in the side of the ledge they were on, alone.

___

Ah, I love cliffhangers-

So things are headed downhill pretty rapidly now, as most you predicted - our group was not only ambushed, but Jesse pushed her powers further than she ever had before. Will this journey be worth everything they're going through? What's going to happen from here on out, how are they going to carry on? I'm open to theories!

Just a quick note that I will be heading off only holiday for my birthday in a few days from now, but I've got the chapters up as drafts, so they should still come out normally! Progress on Our Path Painted with Blood might be a little slow until I get back, but Endless shouldn't be affected.

Anyway, I hope you guys are still enjoying this story, even as we slowly creep closer to it's end! I'll see you all next week with Chapter 18!