Claire POV-

Three nights trying to speak to Ianite through her dreams had proved unsuccessful. So much so that Jordan decided to go out and do more productive things than lay in bed for hours.

The warning her god had given made her restless. Something bad was bound to happen soon.

Declan had been rather useless in bringing her at ease, given that he refused to tell her what the message meant other than the obvious. Trouble was coming.

Therefore, instead of laying in bed, she had taken to going out to the various nether portals Champwan had noticed begun to falter against Mianite's magic.

She spent her nights killing mobs under the white light of the moon, the dark smears of their blood shining on her clothes in contrast to it's pure light.

By the time Jordan returned home, her clothes were usually drenched, as if it were raining blood. It didn't trouble her nearly as much as it should have.

One blow after the next, the Ianitee followed a steady rhythm of killing, clearing her mind of all her worries.

Only once her arm began to feel numb and could hardly hold her heavy sword did Jordan tread back home. The aura of death following her around like a second skin.

Jordan tried not to think of the fact that those monsters were Dianite's people, that she had once walked among them. Some had probably even bowed to her as she passed the halls to see the god of the Nether.

But every now and then, much like tonight, one would talk. Remind her of who she had been.

"My queen. Lord Dianite demands your presence back home" one of those pigment had said not two minutes ago before her sword angled for his heartless chest. The pigment easily blocked her attack and countered with a swing so fast the girl barely evaded the move, a slash in her red cape being the only injury she obtained before severing his head.

It was brutal, yes. The first time one had spoken, she had tried to talk to it but it wouldn't take no for an answer and was fully ready to drag her back to Dianite scathed if need be.

That was one of the reasons why these were solo missions. Jordan never bothered to tell the others were she went at night. The only one who could decipher it, and likely already had, was Champwan.

He held the maps with the magic's weak points and nether portals. Once the nether activity lessened in some places, he probably noted why.

Thankfully, he never bothered to bring it up in their short talks when she went to his house for updated map locations. Perhaps he knew she needed to keep occupied, or that there was a large enough threat that stoping her would only bring harm to the beings of Mianite.

The truth was, Jordan felt like she was helping somehow.

After killing her way to the portals, setting up explosives and traps was done easily enough. All of her efforts stopping any incoming armies or soldiers.

The down side to her night-time vigilante work was the exhaustion and muscle cramps in the morning, specially when Tom waked her up at an ungodly hour to train.

No matter how tired she felt, the next night she was up and ready to go again.

Tonight had been rather easy going aside from that chatty pigman. It seemed that the creatures sent were scouts rather than skilled guards. Expendable creatures to test the safety of the breaches. If there were more skilled warriors, she may not have been able to go home rather unscathed for the past few nights.

Jordan had been trained well by her friends, but she wasn't unstoppable. Her skill advantages rested in unpredicted moves rather than strength or stamina. One of those days, her limited experience with weapons would be her undoing if facing a strong enough opponent.

Maybe Dianite knew it was her fighting his forces and didn't want to kill her just yet. Whatever the case was, she was glad these soldiers were easy enough to deal with.

Leaning against the nearest cave wall, Jordan dropped her sword and let the rocky wall dig into her back as her gasps echoed through the damp cave.

It was relatively dark, but she had spread out enough torches to know when the next wave of soldiers would come in, after that, she would place her safety measures and finally head home.

As she looked down at the damp floor, she could see a refection staring back at her through a giant mass of water by her feet. She looked like a bloodied mess, blood and sweat merging to where she couldn't tell them apart.

A few months ago, she would have been terrified, but now all she could think about was how challenging it would be to get some of those blood stains out of her clothes.

She had gone through 3 shirts and 2 pants whose stains were useless to try and remove no matter how much she scrubbed at them, arms nearly falling off with the strain.

It appeared that her current shirt would join that pile of discarded clothes, having too many rips and the blood so thick in was surely bleeding through to her skin.

That wasn't the only thing she noticed though.

Her face seemed so tired and much older than she had been before. Not by wrinkles or anything of the sort, but her eyes had a certain degree of maturity that had been absent back on earth.

Jordan try to rub the some of the blood out of her face, only managing to smear it across her face even more. Her blood dripping short brown hair staining the little puddle enough that her reflection became difficult to see.

"What a mess" she huffed about loud

Not at her current physical state, but just referring to herself in general.

After waiting a few more minutes for any upcoming nether creatures, she decided no more would be coming through, placing her traps, and letting the cool breeze outside greet her from the shadows of the confined cave.

Still exhausted from the nights retrieve, Jordan opted to taking the longer way home to avoid fighting any more mobs.

She slowly made the trek back to Jerry's tree, accompanied only by the sounds of the night. A few mob moans, crickets chirping away, and the sound of rustling leaves.....wait what?

As if by instinct, Jordan ran behind a tree nearby and stayed quiet as a statue.

She was near Tom's home, which he usually kept well lit. If mobs were around...it would be impossible.

Then she heard muffled voices coming from the back of Tom's house.

Against her better judgement, Jordan decided to investigate despite her body's complaints.

Being careful not to step on any fallen foliage, she finally reached the clearing only to come face to face to an unlikely sight.

Tom and Capsize. What were they up to? A prank on the others perhaps....and they didn't invite her.

Rude.

"That's beside the point" Capsize said

"I think its very simple. Just stop" Tom said, swinging his sword between his feet, a smirk on his face.

"What do you propose in return boy" the pirate questioned, leveling his eyes with Tom's (whom was nearly a head shorter than the pirate).

"Leave your little scheme alone and I'll see what I can do about your dilemma" he said

Capsize remained quiet for a few minutes, considering whatever proposal was going on between the two.

"Why? Why go through all of this?" Ezra finally said

Tom pushed off the wall of his house and prowled to the pirate.

"When I caught on to your little plan today, I realized how pathetic you were to even stoop so low and as her best friend, its up to me to fix it" he responded.

"Perhaps you heard Amy wrong" Capsize aded, not backing away from Tom

"It was all very clear my friend. Correct me if I'm wrong, but you and your little cabal, nah who am I kidding, its mostly you" he said "You are using my best friend to get gold out of her, every bar according to that sister of yours"

What?

That made no sense. Gold?

"You are deliberately toying with her feelings and planning ways to seduce her further for nothing more than ore found within walls of dirt. I do wonder what you want to do with all that gold, but I don't suppose you'll bother telling me. Am I wrong Captain?" Tom asked.

No.....

He had been asking for gold lately, but to get settled...and large quantities for Amy...and to replenish what mobs accidentally blew up....

Playing with her feelings?

So he didn't care about her after all, their friendship was all a lie to get gold. He never went to go console her that day in the closet other than to get closer to her. All planned apparently.

Tom found out through Amy, meaning she was part of it too. The girl whom Jordan had begun to consider as a friend was using her as well.

There had to be a misunderstanding. There was no way someone else would try to deceive her again, not again...

"No, you're not. But what do you gain by helping me Dianitee?" Capsize said

"Im thinking something along the lines of you leaving my friend alone forever before you hurt her feelings" Tom said calmly.

"You really care for her that much? I didn't think Dianitees were capable of such things" Ezra said

Tom laughed and slowly turned his back on the pirate, dangerous move.

During said move, Tom's eyes almost spotted her but she ducked under a bush just in time.

Luckily he wasnt making his way closer to the forest and chose to remain rooted in place.

"Give me all of your gold and I'll leave her be. I never really cared much for her, charming her is too much work, but if I was paid handsomely I could consider backing off my original plan" Capsize said, the sound of those words breaking her heart

He had been helping her, keeping an eye on her all these days. There had been something about him when they first met, a connection of sorts that had helped her heal.

It was all a trick.

She hadn't let herself fall for him, thank the gods for that. But she had grown to have a stronger bond than that with him. They could talk for hours in peace, he had soothed her worries and taken her out for fresh air to clear her mind.

Ezra had finally become friend at a time when she was weary of letting anyone in after what Dianite had done to her. She had trusted him, all in vain it seemed.

Apparently, he never felt a kernel of feelings for her, not as she had.

"I have around 500 bars of gold inside" Tom said

Capsize went quiet once again.

"Will you tell her about my plans?" Capsize asked, quickly adding "I don't need a strong enemy at my back, specially a vengeful woman"

Like a punch to the gut, she let the blow of his words flow through her. Dianite had loved her too much to care that he was deceiving her, Capsize didn't seem to care one bit about his deceit.

Two sides of the same coin, and she had walked right into them.

"As long as you leave her alone, I'll sweep in under the rug" Tom shrugged

He wasn't gonna tell her about it. Granted she had about a thousand secrets she kept from him as well, but Tom was willing to pay Capsize and remain silent about it!?

"You have yourself a deal boy" Ezra said

"Also stop calling me boy, we are the same age" Tom said, with a bit of that dangerous edge in his words that usually mean trouble.

"Aye. As for Claire, you care about her feelings getting hurt, correct?" Capsize asked "Then I propose I let her go easly. Whether you like it or not, Ive managed to become very a very close acquaintance to her. If I stop speaking to her suddenly, that might hurt her feelings. So I'll slowly get away from her, let her off easy bit by bit, that way she's not to emotionally damaged when I hand her over to you"

Hand her over? No, Jordan didn't think so.

If there was anything Jordan had learned from the world of Miante was that sometimes you needed to be the bigger person and walk away, other times, you had to be the bigger bitch to remind them who they are dealing with.

She was done being a pawn, being lied to and played with.

Jordan also decided that she was done trusting people in a world that clearly didn't know the meaning of the word. Probably decimated by the war along with most of the good that had probably once existed.

With her earlier aches no longer bothering her, she carefully made her way back home unnoticed.

After successfully getting rid of all the blood in her body and clothes, she shut off the betrayal of the night's events and crashed in bed. She would deal with the pirates tomorrow.

*****

Tucker POV-

Once in the confines of Jordan's earthly home, he quickly made his way around to the kitchen.

Not there.

Dining room. Nope.

Living room. Not there either.

With and angry huff of air, he made his way to the 'elevator' and minutes later, stepped into his friend's room.

Morning light shone throughout the room, curtains swaying freely with the morning breeze.

Unlike the serenity nature provided, Jordan's room was a mess.

Piles of dirty clothes discarded on one corner of the room, weapons all over the place.

Unable to stop himself, he began quietly picking some of them up, placing them against walls or on wooden displays around the room. Some were still bloody, and the gods knew how long that blood had been there.

It had been a while since the last purge, yet most of the blood seemed fresh.

After all weapons were in place, the visible blob under the blankets from the bed in the left side of the room still refused to wake up.

Tucker decided not to deal with Jordan's laundry, not wanting to deal with her personal items, and instead sat on the edge of the bed closest to the night stand.

He pulled down the blankets low enough to see her curled on her side, her hair standing in all directions and her face peacefully nestling on her pillow.

So lazy, it was nearly mid day and she still slept.

"Jordan. Wake up" he said, gently pushing her shoulder.

With a strained morning voice, Jordan quietly replied "Nooooo"

"Come on. Don't be so lazy, the priest is planning a meeting at sundown. You need to get up now" he said, still being careful not to yell too loud.

As someone who lived with Sonja, he knew what it was like waking up to a loud energetic voice. Though it warmed his hear to hear her happy, it bothered him to no end to wake up like that.

Thankfully, Jordan opened her eyes and smiled at him.

Then she paused, her expression darkening for a second, her eyes falling a bit, then she turned back to him and gave him a half smile.

"Whats up Tucker?" She said, crawling out of the blankets

"You look like the living dead. Are you alright?" He asked

Jordan shrugged as she fastened her cape around her shoulders but not changing out of her shorts and top.

"I can't decide if I need a hug, a large coffee, six shots of vodka, or two months of sleep" she said calmly "For now, I'd kill for some coffee"

Tucker laughed at her joke and picked her up bridal style.

"Im not letting you anywhere near an open flame until you fully wake up. I suppose I'm on breakfast duty" he said as he made it to the elevator and they slowly began their descent.

"Thanks" she answered quietly, nuzzling against his chest "But you need to stop being such a dad sometimes"

"Dad? Since when have I acted in such a manner?" He asked as soon as the wooden doors opened.

"A while. Right now you were just giving me the 'I'm disappointed in you daughter' look" she said, laughing a bit

"Ah, my daughter. Barely 21 and you have already survived death, aided a missing god, and acquired a death count higher than most in this world would ever be able to achieve" he said "I couldn't be prouder"

Jordan let out a dry laugh as he headed to the kitchen to boil water for those coffee beans.

Rare in their world those coffee beans, but Jordan had always clawed her way to the village vendor and paid a pretty gold coin for them.

"How is Sonj?"Jordan yelled from the couch he had set her on

"Getting crops for the week" he yelled back

Once ready, he set the contents on a mug he was 80% sure was clean, and headed to the living room to find Jordan curled up on the couch with a blanket.

"You know, I always thought Mianite wouldn't let you guys be together given how charming he is and all" she said, taking a sip of her drink and nodding her thanks simultaneously "But im glad to see the relationship is still going strong"

He pulled up her legs and sat on the other side of the couch, her legs now sprawled over him.

"Actually, there was a time when Mianite suggested we break up" he said

Jordan raised a brow, taking another sip of her drink, waiting for further explanation.

"Well, he though it would, affect our work ethic" he said simply

"I've seen you guys fight together. I would think keeping you together would be smarter choice then" she said

"Our skills weren't the problem Mianite was concerned with" he said "Mianite was afraid that if I let myself love Sonja...that if it ever came to a life threatening situation I wouldn't throw myself in front of my god, that I'd throw myself in front of her"

She stopped her sipping then.

"What would you do now? Save him or her?" She asked

"Sonja of course" Tucker said without a doubt despite all of his vows to protect Mianite "Why do you ask?"

"A test to make sure you never break Sonja's heart" she teased, elbowing him in the chest

He shoved her back and carefully got out of the couch, making his way to the door.

"Don't forget about the meeting with Dec ok? Otherwise Sonja will come fetch you and she'll probably stab you for having her come all the way here" he said before reaching the door

"When am I ever late?" She yelled back

"I mean it, he said it was important" Tucker yelled, hand on the door.

"There you go again, acting like my dad!" She yelled

Tucker guessed he truly was turning into his parents. Great.

When he opened the door, he almost ran right into a broad chest.

Looking up, he realized it was the pirate. Great.

He should have yelled at him, told him to leave, but that would just prove Jordan right.

Instead he said "Capsize" and made his way back home, fighting the urge to go back and beat up the pirate.

*******

Ezra POV-

"Claire?" He said as way of greeting, heading towards the couches

He set his sword by the entrance to the living room against the wall and placed his ragged coat on the small wooden table next to it.

"How come the Mianitee came over?" He asked once he saw her laying on the couch.

She seemed serious for a second before she locked eyes with him and smiled

"He came to wake me up and make me breakfast" she said, bringing her legs down so he could sit

He settled down next to her and leaned back in the now familiar couch.

"Your Mianitee friends are so lively you know" he said

"Always have been. Anyways, want something to drink, I can get you some tea" she said and he accepted the offer.

She set down her mug and headed towards the kitchen.

Her clothes made him choke on his own spit as soon as he saw them.

"What on Mianite are you wearing under that cape?" He asked.

"My PJs, didn't have time to dress today. In my world they are acceptable so you'll just have to deal with it" she said, disappearing behind the kitchen door.

Well, that was unusual.

Ezra got up from the flimsy couch and made his way to the kitchen.