Jordan POV-

Sipping loudly from a warm bowl of what she assumed was meant to be mushroom soup, Jordan looked at the man who was staring daggers at her from the other side of the room.

Declan was currently the only other person in the room, he was working on some magical potion he deemed necessary for her recovery. That didn't stop him from giving her a glare that could kill as he worked at the messy table on the other side of the room.

Given that she was on "bed rest", there was no way to avoid it.

After the third glare, Jordan lost it.

"What's your deal?" She asked, pushing her blanket back and flailing her arms up in the air in question painfully.

Declan set a few vials down and leaned his body weight on the arms resting on both sides of the table.

Declan, the perfect picture of relentless displeasure.

"Why is it that every time you are here, you end up wounded. I'm not your personal medic you know" he said

"Um, sorry I got stabbed, injured, and practically chased out of the nether to save my life. Next time I'll consider your poor rugs, continuously stained with my careless blood" Jordan sassed back.

She was still in a bit of pain where the magic hadn't fully healed her yet, though she suspected Declan had done that on purpose to make her squirm.

During the time she had been unconscious, someone had left her with her black tank top on and simple black leather pants, probably to better treat those wounds rather than for her own comfort. Her bandages were fully visible all across her body, and the blood leaking from them required constant changes.

So not only did she feel her pain, but it was clearly visible just how much she had been out of her league with that fight.

Declan, noticing her stares at the bloody bandages, cursed as he made his way over to the bed. He grabbed a hold of the bandage on her right arm (from an injury she didn't remember getting), and was surprisingly gentle as he unwinded it.

After he was almost done setting a new clean bandage in place after a flimsy spell to likely keep her damn skin together. Shortly after, she set her bowl aside, and the priest nudged her arm in indication to look at him.

"You really need to stop almost getting killed. Giving all of us heart attacks is bad for our health you know, specially for those of us who aren't as young as you lot of crazy nether spiders" he said

"Sorry about that" Jordan replied "But hey! At lest we got the heart right?"

Declan sighed

"I suppose that your injuries weren't for nothing" he said, contemplating his words before heading back to his desk "Champwan will have to take a look at those injuries when he gets back tomorrow though, don't expect him to be too thrilled about the state you're in"

"Where is he?" Jordan asked, poking the bandages to test their resistance.

"Mianite had need for him shortly before you left" the priest said, his tone indicating it was a private matter so Jordan decided to drop it.

"Now sleep, once the champions return from their patrols, they will be all over you, ruining my good work, and I'll have to fix you up again" he said "specially if those pirates show up too"

"I don't think they will. We aren't on the best of terms" Jordan said, sitting up more conformably on the bed.

"Well, given how devastated they have been lately, specially that captain of theirs, I think they might be overjoyed once they hear the news of your early arrival" he said, picking up a vial of something blue and placing a powder on it, causing a small explosion that didn't seem to startle him at all.

"Was Rupert worried as hell too? I doubt it" Jordan said, remembering the person who probably hated her as much as Dianite did.

"He wasn't, but he was stopping a few fights here and there" the priest said casually.

Then she remembered the last encounter she had with Rupert, the one where she saw his blood.

"Dec? Speaking of fights and all.....the concept of dark blood and stuff came up once. What does it mean exactly if a person has really dark blood? I know they are bad and all but..." she said before Dec cut her off

"It means that person has done unspeakable deeds willingly. That they have chosen a path of death over life, harm rather than protection. Think of it as the universe's physical form of a red flag, meant to tell someone to stay away from that person" he said, still carelessly pouring potion after potion.

"So if I see someone with blood like that, it means they are very dangerous and I need to run for the hills?" She clarified, now somewhat terrified for the other pirates living with Rupert.

"Yes. But seeing individuals with that kind of blood in the nether is normal, valued even. You got out of there though, so consider yourself safe for now"

Right.

Perhaps she should tell Declan about Rupert. This was a matter of safety of course. But what if Rupert or any of the other pirates mentioned her blood too?

What of her own blood? Had it darkened?

Jordan turned to the bowl of bloody water on the small table next to the bed and stared at the red liquid swirling within with worry.

"It hasn't darkened" Declan said, not looking up from his work this time "Since the last time when you were killed or when you fell into the world, it's the same"

"You saw it when I got here.... You knew what it meant to you guys and didn't kill me on the spot. Tom I can understand seeing it as a good thing, but you?" Jordan asked

"You fell out of the sky, there were a few things that were odd about you already. I assumed maybe the blood was different, sensed nothing malicious from it with my magic" Dec replied

Before she could further debate with herself, Jordan heard screams and swords clashing somewhere in the courtyard downstairs and smiled knowing her friends were close.

After her small warning when she arrived, her friends had left her in the capable hands of the priest for healing and they themselves left to secure the island and look for Furia, or so Dec had explained while she woke up in the middle of getting her left leg in order.

Despite knowing how much they would fuss and yell at her, she was excited to see them after so many days apart.

But even as the minutes passed and the screaming diminished, they never made they way upstairs.

Declan must have thought it odd as well because he set down his work, and made his way to the door out the room.

"Stay here. It could be Furia" he said sternly

She gave him a 'where the hell am I gonna go injured' look before he walked out.

Five minutes in silence passed. Ten. Fifteen.

Jordan knew that had been her friends downstairs, but the quiet coming from there now started making her think the worse.

Yes, Furia was injured, but she wouldn't put it past him to attack everyone now.

After a few more seconds of doubt, Jordan got up and slowly, painfully, and carefully made her way down the wooden stairs, holding the walls for support.

Her legs were definitely not fully healed yet, and her right arm was screaming at her as she made it to the hallway before the stairs.

Half way down she mentally scolded herself for not thinking of bringing a weapon and debated going back for one.

Then she realized, she didn't stand a chance with Furia no matter if she had a weapon she couldn't pick up or nothing at all.

She was so tired, too tired to care about death or having to risk seeing Dianite again.

Then again she had slept in the priest's bed just now, so at least that horror would be avoidable, there was no way she was going into the nether any time soon.

Taking steps of two, she made her way down the stairs and heard muffled voices coming from the small living room to her left.

"Look, I hate to say this, but given the evidence, I believe him" Tucker said

"Yeah right! What if he's lying about this!" Tom's not so quiet screams reached her ears and she couldn't help but pause where she was.

"Then let's go confront Jordan about it. She's the only one who can make the right call here" Sonja said

"Yeah! What if that's what he wants? To make us take him to her. Not on my watch!" Tom screamed once again

"I'm with Tucker on this one. We need to let Jordan deal with this, though we might have to do it carefully given what just happened a few hours ago" Sonja said

"You ungrateful children, that girl will not even want to listen to this. She'll make a run for the window and completely tear up the magic holding her injuries in place" Dec said, Jordan couldn't help but stick her tongue out at the wall in the near vicinity of where the priest would be.

Having no clue what required such secrecy from her friends, Jordan pushed off the wall and entered the living room slowly.

There, in the middle of the room, far away from the others, was none other than Furia.

Jordan didn't even bother to see that her friends were not being threatened and that nothing seemed wrong, she just grabbed one of the candle holders at a small coffee table near her and used her remaining strength to run (more like stumble like an idiot) to the middle of the room where he was.

Furia.

Before she even made it to him, Declan grabbed her around the waist from behind and pulled her to the side of the room while Sonja tried to disarmed her.

"Jordan! Stop!" Sonja screamed at her while gently trying to pry her fingers off the candle holder.

Why would her best friend defend that killer!

"Hands off priest, let me kill him! Furia! You're dead!" She screamed, using one of her hands to claw at the priest's.

"Jordan! Stop!" Sonja screamed again, making Jordan stop her struggling as she gave her best friend an astonished look.

Furia took her moment of hesitation to place his hands in the air and fake an innocent pained expression, as if he didn't just try to gut her earlier.

"Claire" Furia said gently

That wasn't....

His whole body posture was off, his hair a bit longer than before too.

His hands had no calluses from sword wielding, he had no injuries at all.

The eyes were the same, a beautiful light brown to contrast the dark brown hair. He also had a bit of a stubble, as if he hadn't shaved in a while, yet he had been cleanly shaved last time she saw him.

But, there was something off.....

"It's me, Stefan. Earth Stefan" he said, daring to take a step forward once she sagged against the priest's hold.

impossible.

Jordan's mind went blank for a second as she registered the formal black pants he wore, the wrinkly white dress shirt that was slightly unbuttoned and ruined with dirt and grass stains.

There. In the pocket of his shirt were a pair of broken glasses...

It couldn't be...

"Prove it" Jordan said, her voice cracking.

"Jordan. Shortly after they brought you in, this guy appeared out of thin air from the necklace with the heart" the priest said behind her "The others too him out to the yard"

"We were gonna kill him cause he looked just like Furia but then he started talking and..." Tom said, pushing the priest away and taking her into his arms, supporting her weakened body with an arm around her waist.

"And he says he's from your world" Tucker finished.

Jordan looked at the guy in the middle of the room. He looked older than what she remembered, but he had likely aged as she had in the void.

"Then I remembered when Rupert told me about him looking like your brother. That such things could be possible" the priest added, sitting on one of the heavily cushioned couches, but still on guard.

"He didn't try to fight us too. He just asked for a girl named Claire. He asked if you were ok, if you were safe" Sonja added, ears perking up at the sight of Jordan being ok.

"That's when we decided to question him. He called you what you used to call yourself" Tom said, placing a small kiss to her temple as if to say 'welcome back' .

Furia didn't know her name was Claire, not even Dianite knew.

If that was Stefan...last time she had seen him, he had promised to get to her. Could he have succeeded?

He seemed to have a kind demeanor, had no weapons or armor on.

He just stood there, waiting for her to do something it seemed.

"Prove it" Jordan repeated, not taking her eyes off him.

"Your sister's name is Adelina. Your mom, Lily, owns a bakery. Your dad's name is Travis, and he hates it when your mom closes the bakery late because he will miss the afternoon football games." He said

"We first met in Kindergarten, and on the first day of class you had a white dress on with a baby blue bow around your waist and a matching set in your pigtails" Furia.....no, Stefan said "On parent day, we built a puzzle of Seattle together that day"

Tears began to fall against her heated skin as she realized it truly was him.

"Years later, we kept our promises to each other and unknowingly met once again at Cal Tech" Stefan continued as he walked closer to her, slowly, as if he was scared she would still kill him.

But Jordan wouldn't. She gently pushed herself out of Tom's embrace and slowly walked over to Stefan, holding on to the furniture around her for support.

"And on that day I said..." Stefan continued "I apologize for bumping into you love. I'm just doing this new experiment and may have done something I shouldn't have. I don't think you can help though, this is very complicated physics I'm dealing with, but I appreciate it"

Jordan couldn't help but let out a half-laugh, half-sob as she finally lost her leg strength and collapsed on the carpet. As she knelt there, Stefan quickly rushed to her and held on to her arms.

She was quiet for a second, letting the tears and sobs fall before she spoke again.

"Listen 'love'" she said "I'm smarter than you think. If anyone can fix what you messed up it's probably me. So lead the way"

Stefan let out a chuckle as well, tears now falling down his cheeks as his thumbs made comforting circles on her shoulders.

"I told you I would find you" he whispered

That he had. And he had doomed himself just to get to her, had left his home and family just to keep that promise it seemed.

"At least you improved your manners since kindergarten" she whispered back, running her hands up his arms, as if she needed to make sure he was real, that she wasn't dreaming.

Sure enough, his smooth skin was warm and real, his white shirt felt soft against her fingertips.

"You slowly taught me to change. Though I never managed to make another friend like you" Stefan said, his fingers resuming their caress as he carefully avoided her bandages and adjusted his arms around her back to keep her upright if she were to fall.

"I never managed to make another friend, period" Jordan said, smiling wide at the face of the one friend she had let into her heart once, the boy who now gave her hope.

"That makes two of us love" he whispered

She wasn't sure if it was rude or odd, but she pushed herself up enough to hug him, holding on to him like a life line.

He must have been surprised at first because his arms fell to his sides and Jordan wondered if getting a hug from basically a stranger was crossing a line.

Before she could remove herself from him and apologize, his arms quickly went around her back, pushing her closer to him.

After being betrayed by so many strangers, Jordan though she would flinch at the contact. That she would remember the warrior that had tried to kill her hours ago, but she only saw him, Stefan, her old friend.

She held on tight to that embrace, so much so that her senses were only filled with his scent of cologne, blackboard chalk, and....and her mom's bread.

Those scents alone, smells she had forgotten and been deprived of in this land, brought the tears back in full force.

"I should have just kidnapped you that day you left" Jordan said, hoping her sentence was making sense "I shouldn't have let you go. Maybe we could have grown up less alone"

He hugged her tighter, burying his face in the crook of her neck, letting his tears and quick intakes of breath clash against her skin.

"I'm here now. I'm not going anywhere without you ever again....if you would like that" he said, hesitant.

Jordan pushed back and gently took in his face in her hands as they both still kneeled in the middle of the room that might as well have been empty except the two of them.

"You're not getting rid of me so easily again old friend" she whispered, using her thumbs to get rid of the tears running down his cheeks, and despite the slight pain in her arms, she pulled herself closer to him and buried her face on his chest, running her hand through his messy brown hair "We have many years of lost friendship to make up for"

He let out a breath of relief and another sob before settling comfortably against her.

"You won't ever see me move to another country again" he said

"And you wont be able to send me away to another world again. You're stuck with me this time" she said, happy to have found that slight piece of happiness from her childhood she couldn't remember, but could always sense was missing.

It had been him, the only person who had been like her, who understood her.

Finally, she wasn't alone in a foreign world with the burden of knowing she would never feel any familiarity with anything again.

Sure, she loved her knew friends more than anything, they were like family. This land had provided her with a way to fit in when she wasn't able to fit into her world after all.

But now...now she wasn't alone. Better yet, she was with a person who was just like her, someone she had missed and needed.

(end song here)

"OKAY! You're not gonna kill Jordan after all, good to know" Tom said bitterly, slowly prying off Stefan's fingers one by one and then scooping her up into his arms bridal style.

"Tom!" She screamed, but never fought her friend's embrace.