Jordan was walking in a desert. An endless, encompassing land filled with sand as far as his eyes strained to see. The sand was a pale white, a startling brightness that caused Jordan to flinch in pain – raising his arms to cover his face as he let his eyes adjust. When he lowered his arms again, the scenery had changed. The desert remained the same, excluding one small campfire that was burning in the distance, a lone figure sitting next to it as if it was waiting for something.

Jordan's feet moved by themselves, feeling drawn to the figure that was waiting in the distance. His feet sank into the sand, each footstep draining his will to carry on. His legs grew heavier, leaden weights that held him down with every inch he moved forward. The sky that started off as clear and blue began to turn black as storm clouds rolled in from every part of the horizon. There was electricity in the air, Jordan could feel it dancing against his skin and causing all his hairs to stand on end – goose bumps prickling his skin.

Soon Jordan could walk no further, his body drained of energy and his will to carry on sapped by his failure. The figure in the distance was gone now, along with the campfire. They were mere mirages created by his mind to give him hope when there was none. The rumble of the thunder was deafening to Jordan, whose paranoia was increasing with every second he spent in the forsaken desert. Tears rolled down his cheeks as he knelt in the sand, trying to comprehend what events had brought him to this point in life.

The booming thunder brought Jordan out of his despair, giving him mere moments to look skyward before the rain started pouring down on him. The scorching sand became cool and damp within an instant, soothing under Jordan's shaking hands. The cool liquid poured down from above, streaming down Jordan's body and dripping onto the sand below – leaving his clothes damp and clinging to his fragile form, leaving him shivering both in fear and with the cold.

A flash of light to Jordan's left startled him, causing him to scramble away from where the lightning had just struck. He blinked furiously, trying to clear his vision from the swimming dots that threatened to overwhelm him. There was nowhere he could go to escape the storm, the land around him was flat as far as the eye could see – there was no lower ground to protect him from the deadly bolts of electricity flickering in his peripheral vision. Jordan crouched as low to the ground as possible, with the balls of his feet on the floor and tucking his knees into his chest – heels together in an attempt to protect his fragile internal organs from a lightning strike. He remained like this for what felt like hours as the storm rumbled and flashed overhead.

"Jordan."

"W-What? Who's there?"

"Look at me you insignificant gnat."

Jordan dragged his eyes upwards to be faced with a sight he really wished he didn't have to see. A writhing mass of shadows floated in front of him, each shadow as black as the night, screeching and groaning as they stretched towards Jordan's still form – desperate to latch onto his mortal form and feast. The shadows had taken the silhouette of a normal man, a familiar shape that was filled with the darkness that lurked within everyone's nightmares.

"Where am I? What is this?"

The creature chuckled, a menacing sound that caused alarm bells to start ringing in Jordan's mind. His hand darted to his side, searching for the sword that always lay in a scabbard – but his hand found nothing but the cloth of the clothes he was wearing. He was unarmed and that terrified him.

"You are in probably the darkest place in the entire realm. This is your own head Jordan."

"What do you mean my own head? Stop talking in riddles!"

As Jordan said those words, things started to make more sense. Suppressed memories began to flash through his mind, images of people and places – the sounds and sights so bright and vivid as if he was standing there himself. Faces floated before his eyes, the last faces he saw before he ended up in this hellish land. Martha and Mianite, staring down at his collapsed form on the floor – concern and fear filling their normally calm eyes, shouting his name frantically in an attempt to rouse his rapidly fading consciousness. A dagger as dark as the void was the strongest memory he could recall, centring itself in his mind as a way to remind him of its importance.

"I-I need to get out of here. I need to get back to my friends; they need to be warned about what's coming!"

"You really are an idiot, aren't you? You've been in here for weeks, the end game has already begun and the final piece is in place. Your inability to battle against your own mind and your stubbornness is the reason that all your friends will soon perish because you were too proud to admit that you needed help. The only reason you even have the chance to speak now is because my puppet was revealed by that stupid Halfling friend of yours."

"Puppet? Halfling?"

"Yes, Jordan. One of your friends was playing against you from day one. They orchestrated your downfall in the battle to defend Inertia, they were the reason you are so weak and broken now. As for the Halfling, there's no need to worry about them – without my presence in the world, the darkness will overwhelm her and she will either be driven to bloodthirsty rampages or to suicide. All because of your inability to kill me properly in the first place."

"SHUT UP!"

Jordan lashed out at thin air, punching at where the shadow creature had been floating moments before in a valiant attempt to do some damage. The creature appeared to him and shoved him to the floor, forcing him to look into black, dead eyes that were filled with dark promises for the days to come. He scrambled backwards, desperate to escape to some form of cover – at least to break eye contact with the satanic being that refused to leave him alone.

"Oh, Jordan. Don't waste what little energy you have left. Don't make me do this. I really wish we could've worked on the same side, though the satisfaction of ripping your screaming body apart limb by limb does have a certain... appeal to it."

"What the hell do you want? You have to have some form of motive to chase me across realms!"

"What I want is simple Jordan. I want utter decimation of every form of disgusting life on this worthless earth. I want the world, where those who survive become my playthings for me to torture and experiment upon. I want the world where heroes like you, no longer exist – stomped out by driven spikes through their eyes and hung upon castle gates as a warning to others. In other words, I want everything."

Jordan backed away quickly, forcing himself to turn his back on the demonic creature that continued to torment him. He stared out across the desert he had awoken in, wondering where he had been trapped before he woke up here before he realised something – this whole world was part of his mind, this area was a mere figment of his imagination in a desperate attempt to keep him alive. So he must have some form of influence over the world around. Focusing, Jordan knelt down and placed his hand on the sand willing it to bend to his will – watching in awe as it began to disappear in front of his eyes.

As the desert collapsed around him, Jordan turned with a smirk of triumph to the shadow being – flicking his hand to the left and watching with a smirk as a mysterious force slammed the creature across the land as if it weighed nothing. As the desert vanished, Jordan's body felt heavy and drained of all energy, causing his head to droop sluggishly – his eyes closing for mere moments before snapping open again.

In those mere moments, the desert had completely vanished – leaving Jordan in a never ending void that seemed rather familiar. It was where he had begun his imprisonment in his own mind, so it seemed fitting to end it there. He looked down at his feet and saw the remains of shackles littering to the floor. Clearly whatever dark magic had held him there now had no power over him. Forcing himself to his feet, Jordan took one last look at his surroundings – wishing something would appear to provide him with an easy escape or a vital clue with how to beat the odds that had rapidly stacked up against him. Nothing appeared.

Jordan awoke to the sound of sobbing and shouting – grief and anger violently intermingling with no clear end in sight. The voices screamed abuse back and forth, tossing words like traitor and coward as if they had no impact on the mentality of the recipient. Eyes fluttering open, Jordan's eyes burned as they adjusted to the bright light of Martha's cottage – a welcome sight to his fearful mind.

"How can we let this traitor just sit here like nothing's happened? He's a danger to us all! The moment his master calls for him he'll go running back and probably murder one of us whilst he's at it!"

"Tucker, I'm well aware of my crimes but without me, you had no chance of getting Jordan back! Now at least he has a fighting chance!"

Jordan cleared his throat, causing every eye in the room to turn from the petty squabbling to see Jordan sitting up in his bed – wide awake and giving Tucker and Wag stern looks to stop them from resuming their argument. Martha rushed across the room, checking Jordan's vitals and asking him every five seconds how he was feeling whilst Sonja and Tom stared in open shock at the sight of their friend's awakening. Ianita launched herself into her father's arms, sobbing her little heart out at the sight of Jordan's warm smile. Caitlin inclined her head, a sign of respect and a warning of things to come.

A/N

Yet again, I must apologise for the few and far between updates. This chapter is long over due and I needed to do it justice.

Sadly my life outside of writing has not allowed me to do that. Various bits of this chapter were written during some rather dark times in my life. What some readers seem to forget, is that writers have lives too - we have our own demons to deal with and situations out of control can ruin a perfectly good writing mojo for weeks on end.

I'm moving house next week so the next chapter should be out next weekend - the 23rd at the latest (thats my birthday :P).

Let me know what you thought of this, as the Shadows said we are at the endgame now. And as an author, I need to keep you all on edge until the very end - give you the story you all deserve.

Hey I mean, at least this should be finished before Mianite Season 3 :P

Have a good day everyone. Thanks to all those who actually read this author's note, it means a lot.

Drop a vote and a comment to let me know how much you love this book, it really helps me out a lot!

Much love,

Caitlin x