Claire POV-

Furia didn't come to pick a fight for the remainder of the night.

Jordan had still stayed in that bathroom with Stefan until the wizards deemed the perimeter safe.

During that time, she realized how confused Stefan must have been about the whole ordeal.

She realized just how much she was keeping from her so called new friend.

But that caution was necessary, she hadn't even told the champions about any of her Dianite or big Furia issues. How could she tell someone, from her world, that she had done all this bad and made all the wrong decisions that lead to her hiding in a bathroom for hours.

She couldn't....

After the third rustling noise in the early morning, Jordan stood from her bed and quietly got dressed, being very careful to not make any noise as she strapped her steel to herself.

Once she had all her weapons on, she looked out into the other bed in the room where Stefan was sleeping softly.

She had put him in danger tonight. Furia's retaliation had been directed at her, there was no doubt about it.

At least there was no sign of Furia knowing about his look alike yet. Thanks to the magical wards placed on the room by the wizards last night, there was a chance that information would stay silent for a while longer.

They were temporary precautions of course. No spell like that could last very long, even if cast by all the wizards. At least it would prevent Furia from stepping foot into the room for now.

Knowing her friend was safe, she took out her sword from its holster and made her way down the unwinding stairs along the outskirts of her tree.

As she descended, there was nothing but the sound of the wind rustling the leaves around her and the echo of her boots' contact on the wooden stairs.

It felt nice though, that calming breeze pushing back her short strands and calming her nerves, chilling the heating skin of her face.

Ever since the search for Furia had come to a close and she was urged to try and sleep by Sonja, Jordan had laid awake, too restless to sleep.

Despite her constant reassurances to Stefan that all was safe, none of those words had made her feel better.

She knew Furia would come for her, specially now that he though she had no way to leave.

Now they all had to be more careful about the ship hidden feet below her underground. Unlike last time, the pirates wouldn't make test runs this time, to make sure it wouldn't be seen.

That's what they had done all day before the ship burned, they had been testing out the sails and maneuvers.

Despite her brain's objections, this time they would just have to wing it and hope the ship stayed afloat.

Problem was, the ship was in her house, the place Furia would be lurking around given that SHE was his main target.

That's why she had woken up before anyone else. To try and find him herself and end this.

Once downstairs, she stopped before the last stairs and let out a shaky breath. Of course she would be the one trying to play a suicide game....

Knowing Furia, he would get her out into the no re-spawn zone and end her once and for all. It wouldn't be enough to kill her and have her come back, not after all she did.

Or maybe he would just kill her over and over just to satisfy his blood lust.

Dying hurt, despite the guarantee to come back shiny and new. Based on her experiences, she had still felt the pain of all injuries. If not made to be a good kill, she could feel her life fade away slowly and painfully.

A feeling Jordan wished she didn't feel as often as she did. A feeling she would never let Stefan feel, no matter what it took.

That had been a big part of her early suicide mission plans actually. Seeing him hiding with her, his life in her hands. That feeling of knowing she couldn't protect him, it had eaten at her soul. Specially when he had asked what scared her so much about Furia.

What scared her was that he was the only person in the planet that could potentially summon Dianite, and he would do it gladly. Sure, Furia scared the hell out of her all on his own, but knowing Dianite could have shown up.

He wouldn't hesitate. Wouldn't play games like Furia had during they last fight.

With both of them fighting her, she would surely pay the ultimate price and something told her their rage wouldn't end there. Her friends and new family would be killed too. This was no longer about world domination, this was about quenching revenge and anger.

With that horrifying though, she managed to force herself down those last steps and head towards the door.

Just as she was about to put on her boots, Jordan realized they were no longer where she had left them before heading to bed. Cursing her bad memory, she looked around the couches and beneath the small coffee table until she head a deep voice clear its throat.

"Looking for these?"

Jordan slowly got up from her crouched position and looked over the couch to see her friend holding her boots in his hand, waving them around with a frown.

"What are you doing out of bed!? How did you get down here before me? You were asleep!" she yelled at Stefan, walking over to him and snatching her boots back. He didn't fight her then, but kept an angered expression as she put them on.

"Elevator is faster" he said before sighing and bending down to tie her shoe laces for her. Jordan was too shocked by his actions, so she just let him fasten the leather laces and intricately weaving them into an efficient bow.

Seconds passed but he said nothing, keeping his angry expression in place as he worked on her boots.

Not being able to stand the uncomfortable silence they had never had, Jordan leaned on one leg and folded her arms together like a child.

"You shouldn't be down here, the spell doesn't go out of the bedroom and Furia could have been down here for all you know!" Jordan said.

"He wasn't" Stefan said coldly, moving on to the next boot.

She noticed he was dressed too, and to her relief, he had remembered to strap on his weapons and the new belt she got him to put small potions within.

At least he wouldn't have been completely helpless. But something was still boiling inside of her, this unreasonable anger at him.

"If he had, I wouldn't have gotten here on time Stefan!" She yelled, pulling her foot away from his working hands and stomped to the door.

"Weren't you the one that said we were better off not going out to look for him? That it would be a waste of time?" Stefan said, trailing her steps.

"Yeah, then he burnt down out escape goat" she said, fastening Stefan's unfinished work as fast as she could before grabbing her her sword and heading for the door, that was until Stefan got between her and it.

"We have another. That's not what's bothering you" he said, his voice a little louder now. She had never heard him yell at her....

"Oh yeah! Then what is?" She challenged back, pissed off at the fact that he could read her so well.

With her usual friends, she could successfully lie her way through any situation, but a apparently not with him...

"He's messing with us. It's too dangerous to let him out freely" she said, trying to calm her anger and nerves by holding tightly to her sword.

She tried to side step him but he blocked her effortlessly. He was still a good head taller than her and despite his lack of fighting skills, he was still big enough to block her way to the door.

"So you're going out to hunt him down in the middle of the night. For someone so smart, that's a stupid idea and you know it!" Stefan said, yelling louder now.

Feeling her eye twitch a little from anger, she tried to turn around, deciding jumping out a window would be a better way to leave, until he caught her shoulder and held her in place with all the strength he had.

"You know he is coming for you, so you're going to him so he doesn't find me right?" Stefan said, fully angry now "If thats the plan, I'm going with you. I told you I'm not gonna let you die."

"Oh yeah! And what are you gonna do against magic and swords!? You can't possibly think that you are ready to take on Furia and Dianite after two days of training, most of which was spent teaching you how to hold a weapon correctly" she said, pushing his hand away from her arm and pushing him against the door.

"Dianite? He can't come here remember?! And I'll fight the same way you would, with weapons against all odds. Should I remind you how I found you when I got here? All bandaged up and in the brink of death!" He yelled right back "It's not like you're leagues above me where fighting is concerned"

"How do you know what Dianite can and cannot do?! Not to mention, if I ended up like that how do you think YOU will end up?" She yelled, dropping her sword and holding on to the front of his shirt with both hands.

"They will kill you. Not because of your lack of abilities, but because of what you mean to me. Dianite will want to make your life a living hell just for that, just for knowing me" Jordan said, feeling tears fall down her cheeks as she pushed his chest harder and pulled on his shirt more "He won't let me have any happiness left after I took his away! So yes, I'll gladly go to my death if it will spare you to suffer from my mistakes!"

His gaze softened then, only a little bit though.

"Claire, I already told you, I'm not letting you do this, not alone at least" Stefan said, his voice deeper and still angry

"I'm far stronger than you think, and I'm much more of a monster than you realize. I'll be ok on my own" Jordan said, still not letting go of him despite her scream's disappearance.

"Tell me. What bothers you so much about Dianite? I won't let it eat you alive, I wont let that pain and anger make you reckless when you have someone you can share it with" he said softly.

"There is nothing to tell"

But there was. Oh, there was so much she couldn't and wouldn't say. Not to him.

Even if he was right about that anger making her stupid.

She couldn't possibly let him know about all her mistakes, someone from her world, where her actions could make her seem....could reveal who she really was.

Amidst the silence, Stefan pried her hands off his shirt and hesitantly placed his hand on her cheek.

"You will hate me. Anyone in their right mind would run away from me if I told them, rightfully so I might add. I just got you, I don't want to lose the one person who just sees me for me, not for what I have become" Jordan said softly, looking away from her friend as the water works increased.

"I said I would never leave you again. No matter what you have done, I will never leave. I won't make you tell me, but I wont let you leave out that door to face it alone. Even a woman as strong as you can only handle so much, love" he said, moving his hand down from her cheek to her chin, pushing it up so she could see his reassuring smile.

How could Jordan trust he would keep his word. Stefan had no idea what she had done, how bad it was.

But he was the closest thing she had, the friend she cared about more than anything in this dangerous world.

He was asking for honesty, for trust.

"I...I don't...if you decide that you can't live with someone like me after this, I'll understand" Jordan said, feeling he stomach sink to the floor with every word.

"Unless you send me packing and kick me out one day, I will NEVER leave you"

A few seconds after those words left his lips, Jordan took a deep breath, sat on the floor across from Stefan, and did the one this she swore to never do.

She told him everything.

She told him about the day she met the gods, the time she was captured by the Dianitees, how she had hugged the god of the nether afterwards.

Jordan told him of all the encounters with death she had witnessed, the times her and Dianite had stumbled across their odd feelings down at his prayer room.

With great difficulty, she went into depth on what happened with the wizards and her death at Dianite's hand. Stefan started to cry then, she had to stop the story there to hold him in her arms until they both calmed their tears.

Then, she quietly explained her and Dianite's confessions and first kisses with great effort not to start crying or be too embarrassed and keep her mouth shut.

She got through it by having Stefan run comforting circles on her callused hands.

The hard part came when she explained the day they began dating. She had expected Stefan to be angry or disgusted, but his face held neither of those expressions. Just understanding.

She cried more because of it, because of that small kindness.

After that, her story went by smoothly, she kept most of her and Dianite's..private moments....more vague, but Stefan didn't object to it.

Jordan ended up curling into a ball around the time she explained "Furia's" attack on her and Tom. Then she felt like sinking into the floor when she explained Dianite's betrayal, the way he had tricked her that day with Tom.

It took her a while to get back in proper spirits to continue her tale. Stefan had wrapped an arm around her as they sat on the cold floor, giving her enough comfort to continue.

So she did.

She explained her imprisonment, her escape, the day in the cave ( in which part she dared explain the issue with The Shadows despite the secrecy around it), she explained her recent mission in the nether, and to finish off, she retold he events of her escape.

Hell, she even went as far as to explain her false trust on the pirates, another thing she had sworn she wouldn't tell as soul about.

By the end of her tale, she had expected Stefan to bolt out of the room.

He knew about all her kills, her mob killing spree, her murders of villagers, her deception games agains the god of the nether.

Stefan truly knew who she was. All of her, the earth part of herself and the Mianite person she had become.

Saying it all out loud...it felt good, like a pressure off her chest, but it had also reminded her of all the mistakes and the bad she had caused. Had she done things differently many of those issues could have been prevented, she saw that clearly now and couldn't help but want to go back in time and change it all.

But there it was, all laid bare before Stefan, who had been quiet for a while now, to her eternal horror.

Once she dared to look up at him, the warm rays of the sunrise were shining behind him, indicating just how long he had put up with her and her ridiculous story.

He quietly stood up then, and her heart sank and might have stopped completely.

There it was...

Tears flooded her line of sight.

Jordan was seriously considering just grabbing her sword and running to the furthest clearing from the tree just to scream her emotions in privacy.

But amidst her inner devastation at possibly loosing her friend, she barely registered the feel of something soft around her hunched shoulders.

Rubbing her eyes forcefully, she noticed the small animal skin around her.

Stefan then came and knelt before her, eyes focused.

"I'll need to get in contact with Amy today" he said softly.

Of course.

Amy was the one person he had gotten along with better than everyone else. Stefan probably wanted to go live with her now that he knew the truth.

Despite her trying to put logic into his actions, she couldn't help but feel the hollow-sinking feeling inside her that even the 'blanket' around her couldn't shield her from.

"She'll have to change her training methods. No precautions this time, no holding back. I'm going to get stronger, faster, and once I'm as strong as you, we will kill Dianite, Furia, and Capsize if you wish. They will all pay for what they have put you through" Stefan said, his voice more steady than any other time they'd talked.

His statement and determination was enough to keep her frozen in place for a few seconds, trying to register just what he was saying.

"You don't think I'm an idiot?" She asked, afraid that doing so would change his mind. But she needed to know...

"Of course not LC" he said, fixing the blanket around her, back into place.

"But....I've killed, a lot. No one made me do some of those kills, that was all me. Dianite was right, I did grow to enjoy it somedays. Not only that, but I dated the god of all evil willingly" she said "How could you be ok with all of that. If we were back home, I would be the number one criminal with this kind of record"

He sat cross-legged before her and shook his head.

"Thing is, we aren't on Earth, Claire. We don't have mobs there, or gods, we don't even get a second chance after death. You changed, but you changed because you had too. Had we grown up here together, we would be as skilled fighters as Sonja, Tucker, or even Tom. We would see no wrong in our way of life. But you, you're stuck in the middle of two very different kinds of societies where one illegal act there is nothing but a means to survive here" Stefan said, holding on to her tear stained hands.

"Out of all the stuff you have told me today, this is my honest opinion on what I gathered from it; You saw good in a man who knew no love, you wanted to help him and in some ways brought out the best in him. You didn't fail him, he failed you. You saved a dying race of Wizards, whom I like very much mind you. You grew strong so you didn't have to depend on others, so you could survive in a merciless world. You kept secrets from your friends so they would have more peaceful lives, kept all your sacrifices with Dianite and The Shadows to yourself for their sake. You suffered through all that pain alone for so long, so you used it to kill monsters who would cause pain to others. If you truly were a monster and felt good about being as such, the things you would have killed wouldn't have been monsters but your friends or innocents. You were hurt by a group of people you thought you could trust, and you pushed it aside for the sake of your god and doing what's right" Stefan said, taking strands of her hair and placing them behind her ears when she finally looked up at him.

He actually mean it, all of it.

"Now, you are willing to confront two of those people who hurt you in unspeakable ways just to protect me, with no hesitation. You are willing to face your fears head on just so others don't take a hit. If you ask me, I see no monster in any of that. Whether it's Claire the physicist or Jordan the champion of Ianite, I see no evil in either"

Jordan had never though of it that way, or ever though anyone would see her like that.

He wasn't telling her what she wanted to hear just to spare her feelings, but he actually believed in what he said.

There he was. Right before her, not running away.

As she felt more tears cloud her vision, she quickly pushed her blanket out of her arms and lunged at him, hugging him as tight as she could. He didn't even hesitate to hug her back this time.

As his now familiar scent of chalk and her mother's baking filled the air around her, Jordan let the tears fall freely, not bothering to be embarrassed every time her breath caught in her throat, or when ugly sobs came her way.

Perhaps that had been what Dianite had needed from her. Someone who saw every part of his life and saw the good in his actions, who wasn't horrified at times, someone who didn't want to change the bad.