Claire POV-

While her friends were still dumfounded at the sight of her god, Jordan looked him over.

No visible injuries, no permanent scars, a little pale though, as if this was taking great effort to achieve. Probably was. He wore his usual suit as well, his lilac hair hung perfectly on his head, not a hair out of place. His eyes, still as kind and caring as ever.

She bowed as the pirates were doing, trying her best to show her outmost respect despite the fact she didn't bow often enough.

Ianite just laughed and beckoned her over, just like he did in her dreams.

Jordan ran over again and embraced him fully, so much so she grew weary she was hurting him.

He hugged her back with just as much strength, as if he too needed that comfort.

Many things ad happened recently and she wasn't sure which stuff he knew about. Last time they has spoken, she was very vague in her explanations for his well being.

Right now she didn't care to explain about the specific pain of Dianite's betrayal, the sudden appearance of her brother's double, or her worries about the world.

Jordan focused on that hug, on the sweet smell of him.

When she looked up at him, still in his embrace, she gave him the biggest smile she could muster.

"Im glad you're making a quick recovery my lord"

Ianite grabbed a stray strand of her hair and tucked it neatly behind her ear and traced her cheek along the way. She could feel his touch, but she couldn't feel the body heat that should have been there had he been really there.

"It will take some time for me to regain my strength at it's full potential, but it has been a quick recovery. How have you been my lady?" Ianite said with a velvety deep voice that send shivers around her body.

Jordan hesitated, unsure what she should say.

"I have been well, but here are some things we need to discuss with Mianite and the priest. Actually, not Mianite, he shouldn't be bothered right now" she said

"I have become aware of my brother's current efforts and...." Ianite said but was cut off by sudden screaming

"You were right mate! I guess your god IS real!" Tom said before he yanked her back hard enough that she broke from Ianite's embrace and stumbled into Tom's torso.

"Sparkly pants, you're not supposed to hug your god. We are supposed to bow, otherwise we are being disrespectful" he continued, though he never let go, keeping her pinned against his chest with a grip on her shoulder that kept her from moving.

Ianite's smile faded and turned into a very displeased frown as he took in her best friend.

"I take it you're Thomas Syndicate, Dianite's champion who hailed from the town of Malum" her god said, a tone more serious than she had ever heard.

Tom let go of her and stuttered for a moment.

"Thats right, and you are Lord Ianite, god of the end, hails from...somewhere...and... ok fine, we get it, you're all knowing and stuff" Tom said with a smirk

A smirk she knew all too well, he was about to start trouble.

Sonja seemed to sense it too because she slapped her hand down on Tom's shoulder and stepped in front of them, addressing Jordan's god with a kind smile.

"Hello Lord Ianite! We had not idea you would be coming, how come the world communicator didn't announce you?" Sonja asked right as Tucker made his way to her side.

"Im not really here child, you see, I am a copy of myself tethered to my soul" he said, a ghost of a smile appearing across his ivory colored skin, his smile reaching his stardust colored eyes in a way that made him seem more god like.

It was as if the world of Mianite was acknowledging his presence as the last rays of the sun were right behind him, creating a halo effect on his features.

A true god indeed.

"Well, what are you doing here?" Tom asked bitterly.

Jordan guessed his behavior made sense, Dianite hated Ianite, it was his belief that her god should be hated. Still, he was really starting to get on Jordan's nerves.

"I have come to help restore balance as is my duty" Ianite said

"Dianite said that you didn't exist" Tom replied

"And yet here I am Thomas" Ianite said cooly

Jordan had to bring her arm to her mouth to suppress her laughter.

When she looked around, she saw Tucker and Sonja were equally as amused as Jordan was.

Tom, being Tom, laughed along and got out his sword.

Jordan could sense the pirates tensing behind them, ready to attack.

Sonja, being the best being on the planet, looked at him in disgust long enough for Tom to stop his approach towards Ianite, who seemed like he couldn't care less that his life was being threatened.

"Seriously Tom!!! We are just trying to have a civil conversation with the god and now you're trying to kill him?! Must your murdering tendencies arise now" she said

"Hey! I haven't killed anybody today!" Tom replied

Jordan sighed and willed patience to overflow in her body.

"What do you want? A gold star? It's not exactly achievement worthy" Jordan cut in as she took Tom's sword and threw it down the hill they were currently on.

Tom made an exaggerated gasp and ran down to get his sword back.

"Sorry, he's like that sometimes" Jordan said, addressing her god.

Just as she finished that sentence, she heard the heavy pounding of running feet approach.

"Im going to kill you, you false god!!" Tom screamed as he made his way back up the hill.

With a look of exasperation, she looked over to Tucker who was equally done with Tom's behavior. They nodded to each other and as soon as Tom approached them close enough, both her and Tucker got in front of Tom and kicked him square in the chest in perfect synchronization.

Tom screamed as he rolled back down the hill.

"He can be stubborn sometimes" Sonja added, as they all quietly stared down the hill and watched Tom roll and roll.

"His behavior sometimes makes me feel like Im being stabbed" Jordan said angrily

Ezra made his way next to her but the rest of the pirates kept their distance.

"How would you know what that feels like?" Capsize asked

"Tom's god stabbed and killed me a while back" she said, much more calmly than she should have for such a big declaration.

Jordan couldn't help but laugh at the memory for some reason and soon her friends joined in to her laughing fit.

Ezra looked frozen with confusion.

"She's being serious, that actually happened. Gave us a hell of a scare then" Tucker said casually, still laughing and still happily watching Tom stumble down.

"Hold up...you died!!!" Amy screamed and looked at her brother, then back at her.

At that point in time she realized that death still didn't faze her much.

"Yeah, well it didn't stick as you can tell" Jordan replied and gave Ezra a wicked grin if only to scare him more.

"That brother of mine and his manners, he will pay dearly for all the pain he has caused my champion" Ianite said from where he stood next to Tucker.

To everyone else, it seemed like he was talking about the stabbing her thing, maybe even trying to burn her alive. Little did they know that wasn't it.

She knew what Ianite mean. He wasn't just getting revenge for all those things, but also for hurting her emotionally. Sure enough, when she looked up towards him, he gave her a subtle nod.

"What is wrong with all of you? It seems we are the only sane people on this island"Redbeard declared

Funny enough, an explosion interrupted them out of their retrieve then.

A few feet away were her other two companions with explosives blowing up the side of a mountain, Bluebeard doing so while screaming like a mad man. It seemed that they grew bored of staring at Tom and went to do their thing.

Jordan and her friends sent Ezra's sister a look

"Fine, we're not that great either...hey guys wait for me!!!! I wanna blow stuff up too!" Redbeard screamed as she made her way to Bluebeard and the man with the skull mask, because thats how Jordan would refer to him as from now on.

"Gods...Amy don't get too close to the mountain!" Ezra screamed "That kid..."

Jordan couldn't help but remember her own sister then, she knew just how exasperated Ezra was.

*****

Redbeard POV-

As she blew up more and more bits of the mountain where Rupert had decided to make their temporary base, she began to lose interest in the task.

When she turned back to see her brother, he was with Ianite's champion.

They had both been talking to Ianite about some important business from the looks of it.

Under normal circumstances, her brother would have followed her anywhere, especially if she was blowing up a mountain, not that she had ever done that before.

But this time he had just yelled a warning and stayed by the girl's side.

Now he was still by her side, a smile on his face every time she talked. Ezra seemed to hang on to every word she said, not only that but she could tell he was being cautious of their surroundings, cautious to protect her.

What an odd sight. That boy had sworn off feelings for others the day their parents died. Since then, his allegiance was to his crew and god, everyone else received a sword through the heart.

Still, he seemed happy, truly happy.

"That's a problem" Rupert said from behind her, scaring her so bad she felt her soul leave her body for a few seconds.

Amy didn't realize she had been staring at her brother and the champion for so long.

"What is?" she asked once she got her breathing under control

"The girl" he said simply

Amy turned around to face him fully.

"How is our god's champion a problem?" she asked

"Look at your brother, tell me he isn't behaving differently"

Well of course he was, that boy was smitten to the core.

"Your point is?"

Rupert sighed.

"Our mission is to help Lord Ianite and keep each other safe. That girl is part of the champions and you heard what kind on nonsense they get into, that girl already died. Besides, didn't you and Ezra say you saw something that would happen to her?" he asked, no trace of emotion in his voice

"We saw her die, but apparently that already happened. It was probably Ianite telling us she died but somehow she got better" she said

"My point still stands. Jordan is clouding his judgement and we cant afford that, specially now. We need a new ship to get out of here as soon as our job is done, it would be foolish of us to stay with these...savages"

But Ezra seemed so happy.

"This is what's best for him and for us, although she is an Ianitee she cant be trusted yet. Her blood, that kind of magic never led anyone astray. We must get him away from her" he said

They weren't even close!

But what if the girl brought trouble along with her, she had been locked up after all, killed even.

"He wont listen to you when it comes to this, you know how he is" Amy said, her voice breaking a bit.

Rupert let out a small laugh

"True lass, but he will listen to you"

"What if he does? What do I tell him? To kill her?" she asked, a bit of anger coating her voice

"No, I think it would be wise if we use her to our advantage. She is Ianite's champion, of course we wont kill her, but what we do need is her resources for our escape plan. You saw how much she had in her home" Bluebeard said, he was now standing next to her

Take her stuff?

"That girl has been nothing but kind to us and she has been through so much just as we have, why use her? Why not the other champions?" she asked

"She is the only one who would care to help us don't you think?"

As kind as the girl was, they had a point. Her and the others, they were a family and they looked out for one another. She couldn't put her brother's well being below anything else.

"So what do we do?"she asked

"The best approach is to get as much off her gold as possible, it is the most efficient form of currency and it would take us months to get all the gold to purchase materials for a ship. If we asked her or the champions for specific resources they might try to stop us from leaving" Rupert said

"So why not just steal it? Thats one thing we're good at you know?" she asked sarcastically

"While she left upstairs after seeing me I scouted the basement of her home. She has a safe that has too many security features I cant figure out, stealing isn't an option. If we got caught doing that, the other champions might attack us as well. This she must give us freely" he added

Now that Ianite was back, perhaps they could finally go back home. Ianite could rebuild it all and her and the crew could get their home back.

"After we're done with this lets get him on board then" she said even as a knot in her stomach began to form.

That poor girl.

****

Capsize-

"Dianite could still get to you right?" Capsize asked his god

"Not at the moment thanks to my champion but in time I believe nothing will stop him from killing me and Mianite. If that happens the balance will be completely thrown off and he will have full control of creation in this world. He will turn it into a large scale version of his territories before the war" Lord Ianite said with enough confidence that one would think it had already happened. "That is why you're here, to stop this"

Claire pulled her hair back and went back to resting one of her hands on the hilt of her sword.

"Ok then, whats our plan Ezra?" she said, turning away from their god to give him her full attention.

"Our what?" he asked, a bit dazed

Jordan sat down on the grass only to collapse on her back and let out a long sigh.

"Oh my god, we are all going to die" Claire said

Just because he didn't have a plan didn't mean he wouldn't have one later. Sure he should have planned ahead for a defensive and offensive maneuver against the lord of the nether, but she didn't have to get so flustered.

Then came Thomas once more and attempted to attack Ianite for the fifth time.

Capsize could see the patience wearing thin on his god.

The last three times, it had been Capsize who kicked Thomas back down the hill. This time, his god stepped past their protective barrier and a ball of black magic struck Thomas right in the chest and he collapsed almost instantly.

Jordan, who had been relatively used to her friend's behavior and had grown quite annoyed suddenly reacted.

"Woah what happened to him?!" she asked as she rushed to the dianitee's side, cradling his head on her arms.

Why?

"Worry not, he will just be asleep for a few minutes" Ianite said calmly "Now we can get back to business without this boy running around like a wounded animal"

Jordan didn't immediately let go of her friend, but she soon regained her composure and returned to where they were.

Tucker and Sonja were laughing their heads off but were considerate enough to arrange their unconscious friend's body to a more comfortable position.

"Anyways, I think if we're gonna talk plans we should do it with the priest and Champwan. They are the ones who helped me keep Dianite trapped in the nether for the time being, they may know how else to give us better odds to win this war" Claire cut in after a few seconds of silence

"What about your friends? Don't trust them enough to help?" Capsize said, motioning to the lot of champions

"I do, but if we do any kind of planning with them we wont get anything done"

"For now, I would like for you both to find all the nearby nether portals and make sure they are effectively closed. In addition to that, measures should be installed for when they open once again. Unfortunately, I don't believe my brother will be able to keep Dianite at bay for very long" Ianite said, like a commander of war giving orders to his lieutenants.

"Consider it done" Jordan said, though he sensed her mind was somewhere else ever since they began talks of the nether. Perhaps the memories of her imprisonment still haunted her.

He understood, they still haunted him as well.

"We can set up rigged explosives around the portals, that should keep his forces at bay" Capsize added

"Do whatever you must, if even one of those portals remains undefended, we could lose the war and seize to exist" The god of the end said

Ezra knew both him and the champion next to him felt the weight of that responsibility to its full blow. If they messed up, it was all over. The war that began years ago would return right back to the horrid state it had been in.

Capsize sighed and collapsed next to Claire.

"I am way too sober for this" he exclaimed with another sigh.

"We leave for the portals tomorrow then. I'll ask the priest and Champwan to map out where the portals are, they know the island best" her sweet voice said

"uhhhh" said Thomas' waking body, interrupting their planing once more.

The three of them stood up simultaneously, both Capsize and Claire went straight for their weapons.

"You! You bitch of a god!!!!!" Thomas said after he got his bearings "Now you'll feel the wrath of my god!! Lord Dianite, I summon thee!!!"

Tucker and Sonja froze.

...

"He's not coming Tom" Claire said as she approached the cursed dianitee.

"Yeah he is! Just give it a second! Dianite I summon thee!!!" Thomas said, throwing his arms to the sky as if that would make a difference

They waited a few seconds before Jordan burst out laughing

"Yeah sure" she said, turning around to make her way back to him

Then he saw it, a bright red light that cast a beautiful shadow against her features. But that light....

"Oh no..." Capsize said

Then the lord of the nether appeared right in her path.