James passes out in my arms as Zona grabs ahold of Roasland. Lord Lionheart makes his way toward us. “Thank goodness I found your group.” I feel tears of joy fall from my face. Lord Lionheart looks down at James. “He needs medical attention.” He looks at Roasland angry. “I will deal with you myself. Zona. Could you take James to the medical tent? I need Ashley to come with me.” I look at Lionheart confused for a moment as he two soldiers grab ahold of Roasland.

“Um… Lord Lionheart. I want to make sure…” Jake comes over to me trying to get his emotions under control.

“Zona will go with James to ensure he gets medical help. I need to talk to you Lord Lionheart.” He smiles happy at Jake.

“Excellent follow me.” Lord Lionheart leads us to a large tent being set up. Two fully suited men stand guard as we approach the tent. One of them opens the tent and we walk inside. The tent soldiers cuff Roasland to a nearby pole leaving the tent. Lionheart sits behind the desk looking happy with what has happened. “Jake I would like you to take a sweep around the camp. I need to be sure no surprises are in store for us.

“Yes sir.” Jake sounds proper and soldier like. I frown disliking this form of him.

“Jake. You don’t need to do this, but please go now. We need to be on guard just in case.” We go to leave. “She can stay here though. No need to display anyone for the troops.” Jake frowns nodding.

“Yes sir.” Jake looks at me worried leaving the tent. Once he has left, Lord Lionheart digs into his desk pulling out a drink.

“Want something to drink Ashley?” I shake my head looking over at Roasland angry.

“No thank you. I just need to figure out how to destroy the Forgotten King.” Lord Lionheart looks up at me confused.

“The Forgotten King?” I nod looking over at Roasland. Roasland frowns trying to break his cuffs. Lionheart stands up going over to him. He looks him up and down confused slightly.

“So, what do you know about the Forgotten King? Like how to defeat him or something?” He looks back at me. I stop realizing I know nothing. I shake my head looking down slightly.

“Nothing.” He stops for moment with a slow sadistic smile forming over Lord Lionheart’s face. He looks back to Roasland caressing his tattoos.

“I guess those tattoos I put on you actually worked huh?” I stop realizing the tent gotten colder. Roasland tries to break his cuffs on last time. I stand as Lord Lionheart grabs ahold Roasland’s neck. He crushes his neck with a sickening crack. Roasland’s body hangs from the pole limply as Lord Lionheart turns toward me wiping his hands off.

“Sit girl.” My body sits on command as he walks behind the desk. His voice changes into a darker distorted voice. “All these problems because of you? I didn’t think my Feedlings would be defeated my a small girl. Good thing I distracted you with Roasland.” My eyes go wide as I try to stand up to run. However, I feel myself being tied down to the chair. This feeling is pure anger and energy. This is a totally different sort of evil. “You aren’t leaving her just yet.” I struggle slightly feeling panicked.

“.. What are you?” He smirks slightly.

“I’m the Forgotten King.” I fear bubbling up inside of me. “Now I need you to play your part girl.”

“What part is that?” I feel tears falling down my face which I can’t control.

“You need to unleash my power on this world.” My brain slowly starts to get overloaded with the immerse fear.

“I don’t..” The room grows colder as he raises his voice.

“I know everything Ashley Price. I know you’ve seen the ritual.” He composes himself taking a breath. “You do this, or I let them know the truth.” Everything at once stops within an instance. All the fear going on inside of me stops. I feel myself get unbound from the chair. The tears continue to fall from my face as I slowly stand up trying to stop the terrible amount of shaking going through me.

“I don’t..” Lionheart smiles his traditional smile sending a whole new meaning into me.

“The truth of the Sister? Jake’s ultimate fate? James’s coming my perfect host?” A vision gets forced into my head causing me grab ahold of my head. I get flashes of a skeleton on a throne sitting dripping with blood. The skeleton blinks back and forth for a second replacing itself with James. Another vision shows Zona in a blind rage. The world is covered in fire. Zona appears in the center of the fire burning a bright black red fire. The last vision is Jake stepping into the darkness. His body slowly becomes wrapped in black tendrils. I feel tears streaming from my face as I stable myself on the desk. I look up at him seeing him sitting there looking smug. The fear, sadness, whatever that is going through me swiftly turns into anger. I close my fist feeling my fingernails digging into my skin.

“I am going to stop you.” He has an interested look on his face.

“We’ll see.” I exit out of the tent trying to show some backbone. As soon as I leave, my bolstered confidence leaves me. I turn into a shaking quivery mess. I search for anyone of my friends. I see Zona standing outside a tent with James inside. I basically run over to her panic going through me. She looks at me confused.

“Hey.. What’s wrong?” I frown trying to compose myself.

“We need to leave right now.” Zona nods agreeing with me as she looks around at all the people.

“I know. However, James is still knocked out. The funny thing is that I never knew…” Tears fall from my face as she grows more concerned. “Ashley.. What happened?” More tears fall from my face as I am hit with another vision of Zona screaming in a ball of fire. Fire starts explodes out of her. I hold my head feeling Jake grab ahold of me.

“Ashley. What’s wrong?” I frown trying not to cry. More visions of Jake becoming a part of that thing. Him killing everything in his path. I start to feel lightheaded as I hold onto Jake. Jake catches me as I start to go down.

“Jake. Run.” I black out feeling something drag me into the abyss.

Get your ass up soldier!” I wake up in a tent feeling scared and confused.

“Where am I?” I look around seeing two people sleeping on the ground on. Jake sits up looking tired. I smile going to hug him. “Jake” I pass through him. “Wait.. a vision? Now?” Jake looks over to the next sleeping person.

“Come on and get up Grant.” Grant sits up looking also tired. His skin is tan, and he looks overall just better. Grant gets up trying to change inside the tent.

“You could have mentioned sooner Jake.” One thing I notice is that they are younger by a few years. Both leave the tent and I go to follow them. They look to be at basic training. I start to follow them as my surrounding area slowly turns to black. I get a creeping sensation of fear enter me. I get outside looking around seeing darkness. I pause confused.

“What the hell..” I hear laughter in the distance as a light shine down on a young Grant on a chair. I feel myself being rushed by the wind or something over there. I stand just inside the light as an older man walks into view. Darkness surrounds the man. The only way to tell that he is a man is from his voice.

“Make it turn off again.” A young Grant struggles trying to turn off a small ball of light in his hand. The man slaps him across the face. “I said do it.” After another failed attempt, the man leaves. Grant sits in the chair looking down. A distorted voice comes into the room.

“Poor child. All that anger and no one to help you.” The young Grant looks up and around.

“Who are you?” The light shuts off and I feel myself being dragged again to a dark room. I am dropped onto cold ground. I stand up trying to stop my head from spinning. I look up to see Grant sitting on a tombstone. It’s his Feedling form. He shows me a toothy grin as he scratches his head.

“Ashley Price. Interesting predicament we are in.” I have no idea what’s going on. He smiles getting off the tombstone. “Oh, this is very interesting.”

“What’s going on Grant?” Grant walks past me as the background fades away. I follow him getting a feeling that if I don’t stay close that I will fall into the void.

“Somehow a part of me got into you Ashley. I guess when I killed you apart of me got stuck in with you.” He chuckles to himself. “I knew that Roasland would have fucked this up, but I couldn’t have hoped for a better accident!” I frown looking at a floating island in the sky.

“Grant.. I know this isn’t you.” He stops walking looking back at me.

“This is me Ashley. That human version of myself you saw died a long time ago. While I slowly claw for power over your body, I can entertain myself with you here.” I gulp getting pulled away again. I get shown various memories through his life. I drop back down on the ground to a Grant looking angry. “Stop looking at my memories.” I huff getting in his face angry at everything.

“Get out of my body!” Grant pauses standing over me.

“You don’t understand the situation you are in. I am...” I cut him off hitting in the chest. He pauses shocked.

“I am tired, hurting, and over all the bullshit. I just want to stop Lionheart and…” I pause briefly seeing a happy life with Jake. I feel myself get red in the face as Jake pauses looking at me. He cocks his head bending down to my height.

“Hmm.. Interesting. I haven’t encountered someone who cares for people who don’t deserve it.” I frown turning away from him.

“I bet you haven’t. I.. wait.. How did you get here?” I turn back to him as he looks at me puzzled. I feel myself being pulled up landing on solid ground. “I hate this!” I look around to see that I am on top of a mountain. The cold wind sending chills down my spine. I look around to see a giant castle in the distance. “That’s..” All of the sudden, a large explosion destroys the castle sending a giant flying off the mountain top. The giant falls to the ground causing the ground to shake violently. A nearby mountain starts to break apart to reveal a pathway between the Northern Mountains and the Green Belt. The shaking continues for a little bit. After the shaking stops, two dark figures crawl out of the shadows. Grant stands cracking his neck and Lillian yawning loudly. Grant looks around the area as it begins to snow heavily.

“It looks like we are back sister.” Lillian jumps up on a nearby rock smiling evilly.

“Smell all that food Brother?” Grant slowly nods walking up next to her.

“Soon you will have all the food you want. However, we need to lay low for the moment. The gods won’t take too kindly to us being here.” Lillian frowns looking at Grant.

“But I can smell someone wonderful just over there. Can’t I just have one bite.” Grant frown looking at Lillian.

“No. Come. We must find a host for him.” Grant disappears into darkness with Lillian following him. I get dragged back to Grant who looks at me glaring. My head is pounding with the shear amount of overload of visions.

“Grant. I can’t keep having these visions of you. My head..” Grant pauses for a second smirking.

“I will make a deal with you. I will let you have your body and stop with my takeover..” The pain increases causing me to grip my head. “If you find me a new body, I still have a few things to take care off.” I frown looking up at him.

“No.” The pain increases causing me to drop to the ground. He walks over to me bending down.

“Hmm.. I can start to see your memories.” I grit my teeth angrily trying to fight through the pain. “Oh, you were an orphan. How pathetic.” The pain slowly turns into anger. “You were amounting to.. Nothing.” I remove my hands standing up slowly. “Oh.. happy memories. Of.. Jake. Too bad he is on his way to become a Fe-” My eyes go wide with anger. I kick Grant in the stomach causing him to bend down to my height. I grab his head staring into his eyes. My voice sounds different not like myself.

“Let’s see how you like it.” Instead of trying to block the version, I take ahold of them. Shaping it into I want. I pull out his happiest memory diving straight into it.

“Grant! Come play with me.” I blink confused looking down at a young girl. I see a young Grant run over to her hugging her close.

“Okay Lillian.” They go off to play in the woods. They look to be having a blast. They spend hours playing and hanging out. Lillian throws one of her toys into a tree and she starts crying. Grant climbs the tree getting the toy. However, he falls out of the tree cutting his arm open. Lillian comes over to Grant as Grant stands up.

“Grant you’re hurt!” Lillian looks to start crying again but Grant smiles handing her the toy.

“It’s okay Lillian. I promise that no matter what I will always be there for you.” They hug as my vision fades. I let go of Grants head feeling dizzy. I hold my head gathering my bearings.

“.. I forgot about that.” I look at Grant as my head clears.

“..What?”

“I forgot about that memory. That was before father sent us to become military subjects.” The darkness around Grant starts to slowly disappear. He slowly gets back to his normal self. “Ashley.. I need you to do something for me. Stop Jake from becoming like me.”

“Grant? What..”

“I have control over myself for right now.” His face blink as his Feedling form tries to come back. “I am going to seal myself far away inside you so that I won’t be able to do any more harm to anyone.” I frown feeling bad for him.

“Grant.. Maybe I could help you.” He frowns as his skin slowly starts to turn white. Grant shakes his head no.

“There is no hope for me. I won’t be able to stop all the side effects of me being in here. You have to find someone to help cure you.” Before I can ask anymore, Grant disappears just as he turns back to his evil self. I feel around the world start to crumble around me. A voice calls out in the darkness saying my name. I start to run toward it hoping to approaching darkness. I sit up in a bed with Jake and Zona. Jake hugs me tight looking worried. A sigh of relief can be heard from Zona.