"But she is coming with us, and there's nothing you can do to stop us."
There was a dumfounded silence that only lasted a moment.
"Oh, like hell she is." Petra snapped, her words coming out as a savage bark.
"You aren't in much of a position to negotiate, are you?" her captor shot back.
"If you think we're just going to let you take our friend, you're dead wrong. You'll have to let us go in order to go near her again." Olivia pointed out. She was right, and maybe I could use that to my advantage. If I managed to get out of the ropes, anyone who went after me would first have to release whoever they were keeping trapped. But...Jenni still had the arrow aimed straight at Lukas's throat, and I definitely was not willing to risk his life for mine.
The leader boy sighed, looking annoyed. "Listen. Let me just clear this up for you right now. We don't know who she is, and as of now, we don't care. We have no idea why she's important, or why any of us are involved in this."
"We were sent here, to bring her to whoeverthefuck who wants us. We don't know ANYTHING, you hear me? The person who sent us must have his reasons, but he sure as shit didn't share them with us." The blue-armored girl snapped.
Petra snorted. "That still doesn't mean you just get to take her! Forget it!"
The other girl let out a frustrated growl. She adjusted her position, one forearm pinning Petra to the wall, and the other hand planted on her own hip. "You better stop arguing right now, or else people are gonna start getting killed. You see the rest of us? The five teenagers who took you guys down? We're not a team. I don't know most of them at all. Whoever wants Jesse wants all of us. Not you. The five of us and her. We don't know who that person is or what the hell he wants, but we DO know that he's willing to kill to get us there."
Her turquoise-armored counterpart spoke up next. "There were four 'missions' like this to get the five of us together, and three of those ended in a lot of death. And before you even say anything, we weren't the ones doing the killing. If you keep protesting this, whoever sent us will...get rid of you."
Olivia glared at him from across the room. "Really? And just how are they going to accomplish that?"
"He can summon monsters." The leader boy informed her in an alarmingly calm voice. "They'll appear, right here, and you'll be dead before you can scream."
"We can handle a few monsters." Axel scoffed.
"Not these ones." Jenni said. "These are horrible, terrifying, and will murder you without a thought. They're almost like wraiths, all dark and ghostlike. Except they have red eyes, and awful teeth and claws. The beasts ripped my friends apart before my very eyes, because they were trying to defend me. And unless you want to meet the same fate as them, I suggest you stop arguing."
The rest of the Order went silent, eying each other and our captors suspiciously. This sounded impossible, but what was the point of creating an elaborate lie? My mind was still spinning through the possibilities of who would want me as a hostage. I could come up with a few suspects, but what about these strangers? What did they have to do with this? Nothing added up, which was beyond frustrating.
"I know what you're thinking, and you're right. Jaqueline already said; we have no idea what's going on. We were sent to get you and go back, and supposedly we'll find out what's up." The silver/blue armored boy said, seeming to have read my mind. His tone was kind, but I was still feeling very suspicious of the odd group. I gave him as good a glare as I could manage considering my 'vantage point' on the floor.
Petra had started struggling against the dark girl's grip again. It appeared pretty futile, but that didn't stop her from trying. "You honestly expect us to believe this? That if we don't sacrifice our friend, some creepy wraiths are going to materialize out of nowhere and murder us? Bullshit."
The other girl growled, sounding genuinely exasperated. "You think we could make this stuff up?!"
"Actually, yes I do." Petra snapped back. "You lot haven't give us any reason to believe you so far."
The dark girl looked about to return a sharp response, but her face fell before she managed it. I was just close enough to see the nervous desperation in her eyes. Her reply was soft, almost inaudible. "We don't want to have to show you proof."
It's strange how that one little sentence completely changed my mind. I didn't trust any of them, and I was obviously still bitter about getting ambushed and tied up, but I suddenly believed their story. The level of fear in the strange girl's voice was undeniably real.
Petra seemed to sense this as well, and frowned. "Why exactly do you care? Weren't you just trying to kill us a few minutes ago?" The reply came out more scathing than she might've intended. The other girl let out a frustrated grunt and stepped back, releasing Petra from against the wall.
"You are an idiot. If we had wanted to kill you, ANY of you, we would've done that from the very beginning. And I might be a bandit, but that doesn't mean I like watching people get killed. That's a load of...I don't even know what."
The dark boy in the turquoise armor also took a few steps away from Axel, apparently trying to seem more peaceful. "We didn't want to attack you. We really had been hoping that you would come alone-"
"-like we had TOLD you to-" the dark girl interrupted.
"-so we would be able to get the message through without any unpleasantries." The turquoise-armored boy finished smoothly, looking unruffled by his companion's disruption.
"In case you hadn't noticed, we're pretty protective of her. She's our leader, and our friend. Where she goes, we go; and vice versa." Olivia spoke up as the brown-haired leader boy also let go of her. Three-fourths of my friends were free now, helping to solidify my belief that these strangers meant us no harm in the long run. Well, I was still tied up on the floor, which technically counted as another strike against them.
"Yes- we should've expected that." The leader boy said, sounding somewhat annoyed at himself.
Axel frowned. "So we're supposed to let you just waltz out of here with Jesse...without knowing what you're getting yourselves, and her, into."
"That about sums it up." Jenni replied. She had been being quiet for a little while, and still had the drawn bow aimed at Lukas, though she wasn't gripping the bowstring quite as tightly as before.
"Guys, whatever it is, I'm sure I'll be fine. I've gotten out of some pretty bad stuff, remember?" I reminded the rest of the Order.
"Yeah...but...that was with us. You know we've helped you through most of those scrapes." Petra added. I gave her an annoyed, reproachful look, caught off-guard. Did she really think I couldn't handle myself? Excuse me, which one of us had gotten killed first in the Old Builder's games? I managed to refrain from saying this aloud.
The silver-armored boy noticed my expression and gave a halfhearted smile. "I'm sure she can handle herself just as well as the rest of us. And I believe it's her choice, not yours. She can make her own decision."
"She is also present and can be directly spoken to." I snapped, disliking being talked over. The leader chuckled. "Sorry. I can help you out of those ropes."
The brown-haired boy bent down and began to untie me. Olivia said something else to Jenni, but I wasn't paying attention, too focused on my choices. These strangers seemed determined to bring me with them, to wherever they had to go. My friends wouldn't want to be left behind, but it didn't seem like there was much of a choice here.
"There; you're good." I got up and brushed myself off vigorously, glad to be free of the bindings. Jenni had finally let Lukas up, but still had the arrow nocked and ready to fire.
"You better not've cut that. I've told you how important it is to me." The silver/blue-armored boy said to the one who released me, and the leader sighed, handing him the length of cord. "It's fine. I didn't hurt your stupid rope."
"It's not just a-"
"Justin. Forget it." The dark girl ordered, then looked at me. "So how many of our requests did you disobey?"
"I didn't-what?" I asked, surprised by the seemingly nonsensical question. She sighed exasperatedly, and Jenni quickly added, "Did you bring the sword?"
"Oh. Yeah. How did you know about that, by the way?" I asked curiously. Four of the others immediately looked at the leader boy, who ducked his head nervously.
"We all have one. It was just one of the requirements for getting everyone to...wherever." This sounded extremely suspicious, but I didn't press it.
Petra, on the other hand, huffed loudly. "Again with the 'we're going to kidnap your friend even though we clearly have no idea what we're doing' thing! Do you guys even realize how fuckin' ridiculous this is?!"
The dark girl jerked her thumb in Petra's direction. "I know we agreed not to kill any of them, but can I make an exception for this one?"
"Nope, sorry. Otherwise I'm pretty sure one of the others would like to do the same to you." The turquoise-armored boy said cheerfully. The girl laughed sarcastically and tried to mock-punch him, but he dodged her fist.
"Let me just get this real straight. You were told to join together by...you don't know who, and to bring your swords because...you don't know why. You were also supposed to find Jesse and convince her to go with you, and go to...you don't know where. Oh, and you also don't know who ordered you to do this!" Olivia retorted sarcastically.
"Yep, that's pretty much it." Jenni replied smoothly. Petra grunted again, sounding very angry about the whole situation.
Lukas glanced over at me. So far, he was the only one who hadn't said anything hostile. "What do you think, Jesse? You're really the only one who needs to make a decision."
"Yeah. You guys can all settle down," I said to the rest of the Order, "because I'm going with them. I don't know what's going on, but I want to figure it out."
"You really think this is a good idea?" Axel asked. He didn't sound mad now, just worried.
"Well...not really. But that's never stopped me before." I admitted.
Olivia sighed, finally consenting. "Fine. Just...don't get killed. And if you're not back in a few days, we're coming to find you."
"Good luck with that." The dark girl snorted. Petra gave her another suspicious glance. "Which...statement are you referring to?"
The other girl shrugged. "Either. Both. This whole thing, I dunno." Petra looked at me with an are-you-hearing-this expression, which I ignored.
The silver-blue armored boy let out a sigh of evident relief. "Thank Notch. I was hoping this wouldn't take too much of an argument. Should we be on our way?"
"Yes." The leader boy replied curtly.
Axel shook his head at me. "I can't believe you're just leaving with these weirdos. This seems like a really, really bad idea, even for you."
"I'll be fine. Probably. And don't worry; I will come back, no matter what happens." I said, hoping it wasn't a lie.
"Promise?" Axel asked. Despite all his bluster, I could tell he was worried about me.
I smiled, gratified. "Promise. I'll figure this out and be home as soon as I can. You guys just make sure the world doesn't fall apart while I'm gone."
"We'll do our best." Petra answered dryly.
The five strangers were standing in a huddled group, watching my interaction with my friends. The leader beckoned me to join them, and I noticed he was holding a small white object in his hand. "Come on. I want to get back as soon as possible."
"How do we get to, er...wherever we're going?" I asked. Jenni replied with a cryptic smile. "You'll see."
I didn't really like the sound of that, but I stood next to her, waiting to see what would happen. The leader dropped the white thing on the floor, but before I could see what it was, a circle of the floor flashed white, turning into a ring of swirling silver light. I gasped, recognizing it instantly. "A portal...?"
The dark girl grinned. "Damn right. Let's go."
While I was still trying to wrap my mind around the mysterious object and the impossible portal, she stepped forward and jumped into it. The leader boy and the turquoise-armored boy followed immediately.
I took a half-step back, filled with sudden apprehension. Jenni grabbed my hand with a kind smile. "It's just like a normal portal. Nothing to worry about."
With that, she jumped forward, pulling the both of us into a world of white light.
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Haha yeah that's an ending, suuuuuure
It is SO WEIRD to write a 2,000-word chapter and be satisfied with it! You have no idea, lol.
Just for clarification
'Dark girl'- 3rd female [she has the Shield of Infinity armor]
'leader boy'- 1st male [he has the Swordbreaker armor]
'turquoise-armored boy'- 3rd male [he has the Ender Defender armor]
Jenni- 2nd female [she has the Redstone Riot armor]
'silver-blue armored boy'- 2nd male [aannnd he has the Star Shield armor]
Also Jesse has the Dragonsbane armor cause I love that one haha
Their names will be revealed in the next chapter, because I bet we're ALL sick of the stupid descriptions.
And I know this one seemed pretty rushed. I don't really have excuse except for...I wanted to get it done quickly.