Minecraft Story Mode Season 3, Episode 1: Powerless

Part 14: There's nothing that hurts more than broken hopes.

"Jesse? What are you doing here?" Olivia asked. Her eyes moved to Jesse's right, where Lukas was standing. "Oh, hey Lukas!" Olivia greeted. Her eyes then moved to Jesse's left- the place Romeo was standing. Olivia dropped her screwdriver and stared at him open-mouthed. "And what's he doing here?" Olivia questioned as she gestured to Romeo.

"We found out he still has at least some of his powers, and we need you to do a blood test to find out exactly how many he still has," Jesse answered. Olivia let out an exasperated sigh and crossed her arms.

"Are you kidding me? I thought you--" Olivia huffed. Jesse bit her lip.

"I thought I took away all of his powers too, but I saw him teleport twice and lift my sword without touching it once," Jesse replied. Romeo looked at the area of his arm where he was cut by Maya... the cut had vanished. He looked at Jesse's cut, which had scabbed over but wasn't gone yet.

"Add advanced healing to the list," Romeo added nervously. Olivia pointed at the lab's hospital bed.

"Sit down there, I'm grabbing the needle," Olivia stated. Romeo sat on the edge of the hospital bed. Olivia walked up to a chest, sifted through it, and lifted a doctor's needle out of the chest. She then walked to the hospital bed and lifted the doctor's needle above Romeo's arm. "This is going to hurt a little," Olivia warned. She poked the needle into the skin on Romeo's arm and drew some blood out of it, then lifted the needle out of his arm and exited the lab. Romeo rubbed his stinging arm, which now had a tiny needle wound.

Jesse, Lukas, and Romeo were completely silent while Olivia had left to test Romeo's blood. Romeo didn't feel like talking because there were butterflies in his stomach. He couldn't quite tell if they were nervous butterflies, excited butterflies, or both. Jesse and Lukas, on the other hand, were definitely nervous. Jesse bit her lip and tapped her foot to burn off energy as Lukas breathed heavily.

Olivia soon entered the lab with a slip of glossy paper in hand. "I have the results, and they're interesting to say the least. Romeo still has telekinesis, shapeshifting, voice replication, flight, electrokinesis, teleportation, and advanced healing," Olivia announced. The knots in Romeo's stomach untied, his heart began to pound, and he grinned ecstatically. "But-" Olivia began. Romeo's heart sank. When someone says the word "but" after good news, it always means that they're going to share some bad news that completely negates the good stuff. "-his powers are a lot weaker. I can tell because there's only small traces of the powers I listed in Romeo's bloodstream. The Golden Gauntlet's energy is working to remove all of his powers. His own white blood cells are fighting against it and attacking the energy, but thankfully it won't be enough because the energy is too powerful. In a couple of days, the Golden Gauntlet's energy should remove all of his powers completely," Olivia continued. Romeo felt like crying and his breathing became shaky. This couldn't happen. Wouldn't happen. He'd keep the powers he had left somehow and get through it all.

Then why did he feel so powerless?

Romeo pushed the question away and tried to think positive. Olivia said "should remove all of his powers completely" not "will remove all of his powers completely." But what if what should happen ended up being so? He was nothing without his powers. Even with his powers, almost everyone hated him. Romeo didn't blame them, he hated himself. He was a walking disaster that never did anything except cause problems, waste everyone's time, and make people angry. Romeo was selfish. Short tempered. Clingy. Desperate for a friend, any friend. He constantly needed people's love, validation, and praise to feel better about himself... because he was insecure and weak.

Each little thing he told himself pelted him like hail.

"Everything's going to be fine. You have nothing to worry about, okay?" Jesse assured. Jesse's words instantly pulled Romeo out of his thoughts, which he was completely absorbed in.

"Nothing to worry about? Are you kidding? I'm useless without my powers," Romeo said, his voice tight and full of desperation. Jesse shook her head.

"That's definitely not true. You fought Maya and Gill and trapped them in a closet with zero powers whatsoever," Jesse replied. Romeo let out a sigh and his eyes moved downward.

"I guess that's true, but I really don't want to lose all of my powers," Romeo answered. Jesse's eyes shone.

"You won't. There's one power you're never going to lose," Jesse told him. Romeo looked up at her with an expression of doubt.

"And what's that?" Romeo asked. Jesse pointed to his heart, which elicited laughter from Olivia.

"If Petra was here, she'd say 'Jesse, you're such a sap,'" Olivia snickered. Jesse smiled wistfully and looked up at the sky.

"Yeah, I miss her. Wonder where she is right now. Probably off on some grand adventure... exploring ancient structures, facing the unknown, engaging in death defying battles!" Jesse replied, her excitement growing with each word. But suddenly that excitement melted into broken hopes. Jesse drew back her hand, which had risen up and moved in an arch while she was talking. "And she's probably free," Jesse added.

Jesse had said her citizens were raising her stress lately by giving her too much work, but now Romeo knew it was a lot more than that. Jesse was an adventurer at heart and her freedom was slowly slipping away. She was being blocked off from the things she loved most-- being with her friends and going on adventures, preferably both at the same time.

"You want to go on adventures again," Lukas stated. Judging by his raising eyebrows, he'd just found out too. "Jesse, you should've gone with Petra. Why didn't you?" Lukas asked. Jesse looked into his eyes.

"I couldn't just leave you. I couldn't leave Olivia, I couldn't leave Axel. All I want is for all of us to be together again. Is that too much to ask?" Jesse answered as her eyes began to water.

All I want is for all of us to be together again. Is that too much to ask?

The words were all too familiar to Romeo. He'd said the exact same thing to Fred and Xara.