Toms P.o.v.

Sparklez had lost his mind, Alister nearly killed us the day he arrested Andor!
And now he's working for him? Did he always have to put his life in danger? God, and all because of that stupid rapier. I'm surprised Ianite didn't strike him when he told me, aren't they all about balance and all that crap?

I walked into my tree and slammed my stuff down on the tiled floor.

How come he never listens to me?

I slumped into my wooden kitchen chair and laid my head down on the cold table.
I heard the scurry of little feet as Terrence came up to my leg and snuggled against it.
"Sorry little dude, Daddy can't play right now. He's too mad at Sparklez."
I petted his trunk and he made cute little sounds as I did.
Terrence truly was the best thing I had ever created.
He suddenly jerked up and looked towards the door.
"What is it little dude? What do you hear?"

Then I heard it too. A woman sobbing.

I recognized the voice. Martha.

I ran outside and looked out towards the main land.

She was running towards me with her lavender hair trailing behind her and tears pouring down her face.
I ran to her. What had happened to her?
We finally met and she hugged me and continued sobbing. I could feel her tears seeping through my suit as I held her.
"Martha what are you doing here? I thought you left? What's wrong?!

"Y-you h-have to st-stop h-him!"

"Who?! Stop who?"

"Sp-sparklez! He's cr-crazed! He's b-blowing u-up the st-statue!" She cried.

What?

"Martha calm down! Tell me what happened, very slowly okay?"

I pulled her hair away from her face and revealed her dark grey eyes.
She looked up into mine and sobbed.

"I c-came to w-warn h-him, not to re-remove it! He w-wouldn't listen! If you re-remove it, it on-only b-becomes w-worse! It's like a h-hydra! It gr-grows e-even m-more heads! He's in-infected, I can see it in his eyes! He's convinced Waglington to join him! Please! Please stop them! The world will be doomed if you don't!"
She began to sob hysterically into my chest again. I put both of my hands on her cheeks to keep her calmed.

"Look, calm down! I'll try okay? Take me to them!"
She pulled on my arm and ran in the direction of the mainland. We passed Wags house and we were almost up to Tucker's when I saw and heard it.
A gigantic explosion. Purple chunks flew everywhere.

I ducked down on the ground in fear of getting hit and pulled Martha down with me. I felt the small chunks of taint splatter onto my clothes as I shielded Martha from it.

"No! We're doomed! All of us are doomed!" She screamed while staring straight ahead at something.

The once tall and mysterious Ianite statue was gone, replaced by a large disfigured pile of taint.
I saw Wag standing below it. An unsure look on his face as he looked at the pile, as if he regretted what he'd just done.

Then I saw Sparkley pants. His expression completely different. He was smiling, but it wasn't his usual shy and meek smile. It was a devilish smirk. His arms were crossed against his chest, and his head lowered. . His clothes were covered in purple goo, and it was on various parts of his skin too. He heard Martha sobbing and turned in our direction. His glare gave me chills down my spine.
That's not what scared me the most. His pupils were a dark purple color, while the white of his eyes were extremely red.

This wasn't Jordan.

"Martha, what do you mean he was infected? By what?"

"The t-taint! He m-must have b-been around it t-too m-much! He's n-not t-thinking r-right!" She cried while staring at Jordan.

"How do I help him? What do I have to do?"

"He h-has to dr-drink m-milk. B-but he w-won't, his m-mind won't let h-him!"

I'll just have to make him then. I had to save him from this.

"Listen to me okay? Go get some milk from my house and wait till I get back. Were gonna have to force him to drink it."
She wiped her eyes and nodded. She stood up shakily and started running back towards my house.

This was gonna suck.

I walked up to the both of them.

"Jordan, why did you do this?"

He stared into my eyes. It took every nerve in my body not to cringe at his eyes. They were so creepy. He smirked at me.

"You need to stop living in a fantasy world Thomas. Destruction is the only way for peace. Now leave, I don't want to hear your childish thoughts. I have more important things to do." He turned back to his destruction.

He obviously wasn't going to come with me willingly.

I turned to Wag and gave him a 'please help me' face. He nodded and turned back to the taint pile.
I took a deep breath. He was definitely going to leave some bruises on me.

I charged and tackled Sparklez around the waist.
I heard him cough, the air flew out of him. I tried to pin him but failed. I was never very strong, but Sparklez had the strength of a god when he was angry.
He got out of my grip and kicked me in the face as he began to get up. Pain shot through my head, he had landed the kick in my eye.
I couldn't see, my vision was blurry and my head was busting from pain.

He was gonna get away.

I heard a loud grunt and a loud thumping sound like a body hitting the ground. My vision cleared and I saw Wag had also tackled Sparklez, and he had him pinned with his arm behind his back.

"Tom! Hurry! Knock him out!"

"GET OFF ME!" I heard him scream.

I can't knock him out, what if he goes back into a coma?

"Tom come on! I can't hold him much longer!"

I had to. I won't let him be like this.
What could I knock him out with?

I heard Wag grunting as Sparklez was trying everything in his power to get loose.
I raised up and looked around to see if there was anything I could use.
The only thing that was nearby was Tucker's mailbox, which was impaled in the ground.

"Tom!" Wag yelled again. Sparklez was almost loose.

This is gonna be painful for him.

I uprooted the mailbox and ran over to Wag.

I hesitated. His glasses had fallen off.
He looked at me, his eyes bored into mine. . . his pleading blue eyes.
I didn't want to hurt him.

I closed my eyes and swung.
A loud clanging sound ensued, I heard his head hit the ground
I heard Wag sigh.
"That was close for my liking. I'm sorry I blew up the statue. It felt good at first, but now I realize he was crazed when he explained to me why he wanted it gone."

"It's fine. Help me carry him to my place, Martha has to give him some milk to get rid of the infection."
We carried him to my place and tried not to drop him on the way. We arrived outside and I heard Martha open the door.

"Oh my! Is he alright?!" She exclaimed.

"I don't know...I hope so," I replied as we carried him to my bedroom and laid him down on my bed.

"Do you have the milk?" Wag asked.

"Oh! Let me grab it!" She ran to the kitchen and I heard her shuffle around.
Sparklez began groaning. He was about to wake up.

"Martha hurry!"

She ran in with the milk. I propped Sparklez up and split apart his lips. I hope he didn't choke.
She began to pour it in his mouth and I raised his neck up slightly so it would go down easier. She finished and I laid him back down on the bed.
He continued to groan. He moved his head a little.

"Do you suppose it worked?" Wag asked quietly.

As an answer, Sparklez began to cough.
He opened his eyes slightly and looked around. His eyes were still a little red, but the purple was gone.
He opened his mouth to speak.

"Martha...I'm sorry..." He croaked out.

"Oh dearie...don't apologize for something you didn't mean to do. You were ill, you didn't do it on purpose. Do you feel a burning sensation any longer?"

"N-no...I do feel really nauseous and sick..."

Martha sat on the bed next to him and ran her fingers through his hair. She looked into his eyes and smiled a sad smile.
I could feel my face getting heated. I know she was comforting him, but she didn't need to be flirting and touching him like that when he was so sick.

"My dearest, what caused you this illness? Did you get too close to the taint?"
He shifted a little awkwardly as she continued to brush his hair.

"I sorta fell in a pool of it..."

She sighed. "Well that would explain it."

He looked at her confused. "No one told me the taint could cause infection and disease. I wouldn't have gotten around it other wise."

"Oh I'm sorry I didn't tell you sweetheart. I just assumed. Why don't you rest know hmm? I know you're very tired from this whole incident."

"Wh-what about the taint? Is it gonna spread?" He barely had his eyes open.

"Shh, don't worry your mind about it. Steven will make his return in a few days, hopefully he will solve all of our problems," she touched his cheek and whispered,"Rest now hero."

He closed his eyes before she could even finish her sentence.
I felt horrible for hitting him with a mailbox. He looked so exhausted.
Martha sat up from the bed and turned to me.

"Thank you for aiding in my assistance. Take care of him, he will most likely be very weak for a period of time."
She kissed me on the cheek and stayed there for a moment. She pulled away and turned to Wag.
"I understand you feel deep guilt for your deeds. You should not. You were confused, and I wouldn't blame you. Thank you for helping him."
She hugged Wag and pulled away. She walked out of the room and I listened as the front door opened and closed. I didn't know where she was going, but I couldn't follow her. I had to look after Sparklez.

"I feel like I should go. My apologies for the events that happened today, and I wish Jordan the best in healing. Goodbye!" He proofed out of my house and disappeared.

It was just me and him now.

I dragged the covers over his body and laid down on the bed beside him.

I wrapped my arm protectively over his chest.

He was definitely going to have nightmares sooner or later during the night. I was ready to comfort him, no matter how bad they were.

"I'm sorry so much horrible crap happens to you Jordan. You don't deserve it."

I cuddled into his neck. Cuddling had become our thing since the whole snuggle pic I showed him. We didn't comment on why we did, we just did it. Maybe it was to ease nightmares, or maybe it was to give eachother more comfort. Either way, I was happy with it.
I dragged my fingers through his hair. By now, I knew that this gave him the most comfort.
I heard a strained snicker.

"Are you awake? Seriously?"

"I was just trying to get Martha to leave me alone...I didn't know you were gonna do all this nice stuff for me."
I huffed and turned away from him. I felt the bed shift, he was facing me.

"I'm sorry I called you childish...and kicked you in the face..."

"...I'm sorry I hit you with a mailbox..."

I turned back to face him and his eyes widened as I did.

"Your eye...it's so swollen. I feel so bad."
I touch my eye lightly. It did kind of hurt.

"Don't worry about it. Go to sleep. I know you're tired."

"You gonna keep doing these nice things for me if I do?"

"Sure. Just don't kick me in the face again please."

"Fair enough." He replied

He faced away and pulled the covers over himself.
I draped my hand over him again.
After a couple of minutes, I heard him lightly snoring.

He didn't have any nightmares that night. Neither did I. It was peaceful.
---
Tucker's P.o.v

"Okay okay I heard you! Tell me where it is, and stop yelling at me!"

"I yell if I want you salt shaker. Its literally right there next to the town, and it's dark and purple and gross and there's taint swarms all over my house!"

"Alright I'm on my way. And you're sure it wasn't there yesterday?"

"No, I would've have noticed this yesterday. I feel like Tom or Sparklez had something to do with it, but just a feeling. I'm sure they would never do anything stupid or wrong." I could hear sarcasm oozing for her voice.

I put away my blood magic blade and stepped on my elevator button. I teleported to my last floor and began to walk towards the town. Sonja was probably right about Tom and Jordan having something to do with this. They were always doing something stupid or reckless. And lately it had been all the time.

I actually sorta missed hanging with Tom, we had made up after the whole fight a couple of week ago but we still hadn't talked much at all. All he seemed to care about anymore was protecting Jordan.
Which I couldn't really blame him for doing that. We couldn't risk any more of the Ianites getting killed or missing. We needed them in order to fight back in the revolution. When Jordan was nearly killed, Dec had a long talk with us about the revolution. He said if we wanted to over throw the king, we needed Jordan. Apparently, Andor wouldn't have the strength or will to overthrow his father if Jordan was dead. Even though most of us were pretty nice to him, I guess he and Jordan had some kind of special bond. I remember his reaction when Al imprisoned Andor. It was just shock and disbelief. He didn't move at all. He just stared at the place Andor had stood just before. I was about to stop Al when he lunged at Jordan, but Tom took care of that.
I had felt so much guilt for him. He had already lost Capsize, now he had lost another friend who he cared about.

I stopped in mid thought and saw just what Sonja was panicking about.

There was a gigantic taint monster in the center of the mainland.
No it wasn't the same size as the last one, this one was 10 times larger and scarier. It looked like a woman screaming at the town. Her hair was stretched out everywhere and some of it warping around the towns towers. The taint swarms were in every nook and cranny of the statue. The buzzing was driving me insane and I hadn't even fully walked up to it yet.
My girlfriend stood in front of it, gazing at it in utter horror. She hated the taint. This must have been a nightmare for her.
"Okay, the first statue was bad. This however, is truly the worse thing I have ever seen in my entire life."
She covered her mouth and continued to stare at it.

"This is going to kill us all if we don't control it," she said quietly.

I looked down at the bottom to see how much it had spread. The veins were stretched even farther than they were last time. The bridge was completely over come by taint.
Sonja walked closer to the statue and bent down to look at something.
"What is it?" I asked curious.

She just shook her head sadly.

I walked over to where she was looking, and saw a gigantic puddle of taint.
Inside the puddle was a pig. It's rotted face was staring at Sonja, it only had one eye. The other was just an empty hole with taint seeped into it. It was trying to swim to Sonja. It's little squeaks were weak and pained.
I could see her crying. I bent over with her and placed my hand around her waist. She buried her head into my shoulder.
She loved animals. Even if they were annoying and ugly, she still loved them all. It was one of the things I loved most about her. Seeing these animals dying to this horrible plague must have been tearing her apart.
"It's just a little pig Tucker. He's suffering from someone else's mistakes..."
I watched as the pig slowly sunk into the taint. I pulled out my bow.
"Do you want me to?"
She looked at it for a moment and then nodded slowly. She closed her eyes.
I fired the arrow, and the pig went limp and sunk into the pool.
No one deserves to die like that. Even if it's just an animal.
We had to stop this.
----
Toms p.o.v.

"Will you stop combing your hair and get out of the bathroom?!"

"Perfection takes time, something you don't know about," I laughed.

Sparkley pants was cranky today, and I was enjoying it.

"Can I at least wash my face?"

"No. You should have woken up early if you wanted to sparkle!"

"I hate you. I really do."

"You love me sparkles, or did the taint infect the caring part of your brain too?"

"Forget it. I'll wash my face in the stream then."

I laughed and turned back to him.

"I'm just kidding! Wash your crusty old face and hurry, I wanna see what you've done to the poor town of Dagrun. I wonder if the taint has spread through the town hmm? That would be quite unfortunate wouldn't it?"

He began to wash him face in the sink. He dried off and faced me.
"If you say one more god forsaken thing about the taint, your black eye is gonna have a matching pair."

"Ooooo Sparkley pants is getting feisty! I guess that's the taint infection too, or is it just your cold heart?"
He grabbed a picture frame that was on the wall.

"Why did you take my picture off the wall? Are you jelly of it?"

I laughed again.
I heard an ear shattering crash beside me.
I looked to where it was and saw the shattered frame on the floor beside me.

"Hey! You could have hit me!"

"You're lucky I feel ache in every inch of my body, or else that frame would've been the last thing you ever saw. Now come on, I need to see what the damage is."

He walked out of the tree and I followed behind with caution. Maybe I shouldn't have pissed him off so badly.

We were almost to the mainland when we saw it.

"What have I done..." Sparklez put his head in his hands and groaned.
The thing was huge. It looked like a lady screaming, and I think it was Ianite. There were weird looking tentacle things reaching out towards the town, some of them were attached to the towers. The lady Ianite statue was no where as big as this one was.

"Why didn't I just decline Al right away? I could have prevented this...we're all gonna die because of me..."

"Dude, no one could have predicted this anyway. Don't blame yourself. C'mon I see Tucker and Sonja up ahead. We should explain what's going on."

He didn't move though. He stared blankly at the taint monster.
I grabbed his arm and guided him towards Tucker and Sonja.
They weren't to happy about this either.
They were both sitting near a taint puddle. Sonja had her head on Tucker's shoulder. Tucker had his bow lying on his lap.

"You guys okay? You seemed really bummed out."
Tucker turned to me.

"This taint shit has to stop. I just watched a pig die a horrible death from this disease ridden plague, and Sonj had to watch me put it down."

"How come it only kills animals? Hmm..." Sparklez seemed fine after the incident.

"It does kill both...just very very slowly," Sparklez whispered to himself.

"Sparkles, sit and chill." He sat down slowly beside of Tucker and lowered his head.
I pulled out my phone and handed it to him.

"Try to not think about it, okay?"

He began swiping through the photos.
Tucker looked at him.

"What's wrong with him? I thought he recovered from the broken stuff. And what's wrong with your eye? You look like crap man."

"It's not the broken stuff. It's really hard to explain. Sparklez accidentally fell into a taint puddle and the junk kinda messed with his head. He blew up the Ianite statue while he was in this state. Martha tried to warn me, but I was too late. We ended up having to knock him out but before we could he kicked me in the face, which is why I have a black eye. We made him drink milk to make the infection go away, now he's experiencing major guilt for dooming humanity."

"I'm sorry guys...I didn't mean to...I should have just stayed home yesterday..."

"Hey! I said don't think about it!"

"It's hard not to when you're explaining it, but okay."

"Did Martha say anything about how to get rid of this stuff?" Tucker asked.

Sparklez voice chimed in again.
"She left me a book. She said she was going to find Ianite, and that Steve would be back in a few days. She gave me sulfuric bath salts? I don't know what they do. But anyway, I was gonna wait to tell you Tom. But I see no point in it now that the world is doomed. I'll stop talking now."
He glanced back at my phone and continued swiping through the photos.

"Isn't there anything we can do?!" I heard Sonja mutter.

"I dont think so. Maybe put down some ethereal blooms and keep it away from your houses. I guess that should hold it back until Steve or Martha returns."

Tucker stood up and helped Sonja up as well.
"C'mon Sonj, let's go home. It's starting to get dark, and I don't want to fight off faint swarms and mobs."

They walked hand in hand towards Tucker's compound until I could no longer see them.

Seeing them hold hands and comfort eachother made me sick to my stomach. It wasn't like I hated their relationship or anything, I just really wanted one like theirs. One that would last no matter how stupid and rude I was.
I really wanted a relationship for some reason. I guess that's part of the reason I didn't hang out with him a lot anymore. He and Sonja reminded me too much of how I wanted this little dream.

I looked to Sparklez to see if he noticed I zoned out. But his gaze was fixed on the statue. It was like he was trying to read it or something.

"You okay there dude?" I asked concerned.

"I just...if she wasn't made of a disease filled plague, maybe people would love her more..."
I looked up at the screaming statue of Ianite. I didn't really see much beauty, but he certainly did.

"...What do you think she's trying to say in this?"

Jordan's face changed. He stared straight ahead, not blinking once.

"She's tired of balance. She's tired of being weak. She just wants them to love her and listen to her, but she knows it won't happen ever again. The only way to save her people from themselves, is by destroying them. Martha was right. It didn't have to come to this. This didn't need to happen. All they had to do was listen. But they wouldn't."

"That's some deep stuff Jordan. You got all that from a statue?"

He didn't say anything for a few seconds.
He blinked twice and looked up at me confused.
"Did I say anything weird just now?"

"Uh, you gave a speech about why Ianite made this. That was a tad weird."

He stared at the ground in bewilderment.
Like he had just realized something amazing.

"She...she just spoke to me...I heard her..." He stood up and walked backwards looking at the statue in pure fear.

"Tom...horrible things are going to happen soon. We have to be ready."

He paled and continued staring at the statue.

I wrapped my arm around his neck.

"Don't worry, we will be."

I just hope I wouldn't lose him in all this hell.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GUYS IM GONNA MISS YOU ALL SO MUCH.
IM ACTUALLY KINDA DEPRESSED I HAVE TO STOP WRITING FOR THREE DAYS D;
Well...I hope you at least enjoyed this chapter...I made it extra long for you guys because i love u <3
I might post on Friday...if I'm bored on my way to state... But I can't promise much ;(
Also! I wanted to ask you guys to...I dunno...ASK ME SOME BEAUTIFUL QUESTIONS
Because I love responding to them :D
If I hit 10k when I get back...I might do something awesome for you guys...but I don't really know what to do.
I might post like a selfie or a video or something if u wanna see my ugly potato face...
TELL ME WHAT YOU WANT YOU BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE. ILL GIVE YOU ANYTHING. (Well almost anything...)
Plus I watched the stream today...
THE WIZARDS ARE SO CUTE AND THEY SOUND SO ADORABLE, THE ONE NAMED PHIL IS MY FAV
Fangirling aside, goodbye guys! I'll miss you! Give me questions and I'll answer! Good bye my lovelies!
- Lee