"Tyler!"

My eyes snapped open as someone shook me awake. I immediately regretted opening my eyes the second I did- my head ached for some reason.

"Ungh." I said, turning over and burying my face in my pillow. "What."

"We've got a bit of a situation." I recognized the voice as Jess.

"Are we being attacked right now." I asked, the tone of my voice flat.

"Well, no-"

"Is someone literally seconds from death."

"No."

"Then I can sleep. G'night, Jess."

"Tyler, this is serious!"

I groaned, sitting up and doing my best to ignore the fact that I felt like the inside of my head was pulsing. "Fine. What is it?"

"It's him." She said. "Darklox is putting out a call to every Shadow out there. It's like a video message."

I absentmindedly stared at her, what she meant still not getting through. "So?"

"I think he knows I'm with you guys. It's a message for all of you."

That was a good incentive to get me to wake up.

***

"So...tell me why you got all of us up before sunrise?" Quinn asked, yawning.

Everyone was awake, or mostly awake. Shane sat up against a tree trunk, his head hanging. I could hear a small snore from him every once in a while. 

"Shane." I said, making my voice as loud as I could without startling myself. It was too early for talking, even with the situation we had. 

He made no response. Jenna sighed, leaned over, and punched him in the arm. 

His head jolted up. "I'M UP!" He yelled, making the rest of us wince. 

"Okay, now that everyone's here," Dad said. "Mind explaining?" 

Jess stood up. "Alright, so apparently, you guys have this thing that makes you less able to function without enough of it, so...I'll cut to the chase."

"It's called sleep." Mitch said. 

"And it's a beautiful thing." Jerome added. 

"Right. Well." Jess continued. "Darklox has this thing where he can contact other Shadows and tell them what to do and all that. It's kind of like a one-way video call."

"What does that have to do with us?" Ty asked, crossing his arms. 

"I'm getting to it."

"Let me just cut in and say it: you need to recheck the definition of 'cutting to the chase'." Ssundee said. 

She rolled her eyes at him, and continued. "I think he knows I'm with you guys. It's video message that seems to be aimed at you."

"Okay, first of all," Dad cut in. "You're not with us. I don't trust you half as far as I can throw you."

"Thought you were supposed to be tough." Jess countered. "If you were really all that, you could disintegrate me if you wanted, right? Surely throwing isn't all that big of a deal compared to that."

Dad gritted his teeth. "I have no problem killing you."

"Sure you don't. That's why I'm standing here, alive and kicking." Jess replied.

"You want to try me?" Dad asked. "I'll take you out right now."

"I'd like to see you try." Jess said. 

Before anything could happen, Jason stepped in between them. "Annnnd, let's stop it right there. We're all tired. Fighting her isn't going to get us anywhere."

"He's right." Quentin said. "Let's just hear this message and then we'll figure out what to do. Can't hear the message if the messenger is dead." 

Dad sighed, backing up a step. "Fine. Let's hear it, then." 

Jess smiled, clearly taking it as a victory. She raised her hand, and a in front of her, a panel that look like a sort of screen appeared that was completely black.

"What is that?" Cameron asked, his eyes wide.

"Nothing special." She said. "Just a little communication type thing all Shadows have. It's supposed to make it easier for him to relay orders or whatever. I usually don't listen to them anyway, so it gets pretty easy to tune him out."

The screen's image changed from black to a clear image of-

My stomach lurched, and Ty instantly stood up. Skylar stood there, but it wasn't Skylar. Her red eyes were too prominent for it to be Skylar. 

"Is this thing on? Helloooo?" She said. "Ugh, I never get the hang of these stupid things. Um, testing, testing, 1, 2, 3..."

Jess turned her head towards us. "And you all think I would like working for this guy."

Suddenly, her mouth was moving, but no sound was coming out. 

"Uhh, what's happening?" Jenna asked. 

Jess sighed. "He just muted himself. Give it a second."

Her voice came back in a split second. "Okay, I realize what I did there, it's very funny, but anyways, back to business. So, a little birdie has told me that Jess has joined up with the enemy. So, if you see Jess anywhere, she's a traitor. Bring her in immediately. I need to get trackers on you morons for situations like this."

Jess cursed under her breath. "Great. Now they're all going to be looking for me."

"Are we going to have to worry about that?" Mitch asked. 

"Probably not that much, but it'll probably be more of a hassle to get places than anything else."

"'Cause it wasn't easy enough." Shane muttered. 

"Alright, so, now that we got that out of the way," Darklox continued. "I know Jess is hearing this, so you might want to tell your new buddies that I'm getting a little impatient. I was expecting them to find me within minutes so I could destroy them all easily!  I mean, come on! I've got this girl, but apparently, that's not enough incentive to look hard! Now that they've got you, I'm sure finding me will be no issue. But, since I want to make sure no one's hesitating..."

The scene switched, and instead of just Skylar's face, I could see a woman in the background, sitting against the wall with her knees to her chest. I had never seen her before in my life. 

She looked up, staring straight at the screen. She looked like she had been crying. 

"Now, Sky may know her, or he may not, I don't know."

I looked over at my dad, who looked confused. 

"Dad, do you-"

"No." He said. "Never seen her before."

"And in case you don't," Darklox continued. "This is Alesa. And guess what? She's your responsibility now. I want Sky here, alone, with the amulet. I'll give you one week to make that happen. And if it doesn't...hmm, let's just say Alesa here won't be breathing for much longer. And it'll be on your hands. See ya!"

The image disappeared entirely, the screen changing back to it's original black. 

We were all completely silent and still, and Dad started to walk away. 

Ty grabbed his arm, stopping him. "No." 

"What?" He asked. 

"Sky, I know you. You're going to do exactly what he wants, aren't you?"

"You heard him, Ty!" Dad yelled. "He's going to kill that girl if I don't!"

"He'll kill everyone if you do!" Mitch said. "As soon as he gets his hands on that amulet, you're first to go, and then we're all as good as dead."

"He's right." Jason said. "We can't let you just walk straight in there and hand over the amulet."

"I wasn't going to do that." He said. "I was going to come up with a plan for me to get there alone and still keep the amulet away from him."

"And even if it was the greatest plan in the world, who's to say he doesn't have a trap set up?" Quentin said. 

"Well, we can't just sit here and let her die, can we?"  Dad asked. 

"And we won't." I said. "Dad, we can all go. Maybe this is our shot to finally beat him!"

"Tyler-"

"No, he's right." Shane said. "If we all go, we can make a plan and take him down once and for all!"

"Woah, woah, woah." Ssundee said. "No way. This is way too dangerous for you kids-"

"And so was everything else we fought to find you." Jenna said. "I lost my brother to him. I'm not going to sit around while you guys get to go take him out. I want in."

"Me too." Shane said. 

"Me three." I said. "Skylar's there, and I promised I'd help her."

"Count me in!" Alyssa grinned.

"This has a high probability of failing," Cameron started. "But if everyone else is going, I refuse to be the one left behind."

Macey nodded.

"What about you, Quinn?" I asked. 

She looked up at me before shrugging. "I guess I'll go..."

Dad looked around at all of us. "You're not going to back down on this, are you?"

We all shook our heads. 

Mitch laughed. "We raised a stubborn group, didn't we?"

"Guess what they say about apples not falling far from the trees is true." Jerome added.

"Jess, can you get us to the new base in under a week?" I asked, turning to look at her. 

"Yeah, that should be no problem." She smiled. 

"So, we're all in then, I guess?" Dad asked, and everyone nodded. 

"Alright then. Let's make a plan to kill a demon."

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I AM SO SORRY THIS IS SO LATE I'VE HAD A COLD FOR A LITTLE BIT AND IT'S NOT FUN TO WRITE WHEN YOUR ENTIRE HEAD FEELS STUFFY BUT I DID IT!!! I GOT THE CHAPTER OUT!! YAY!

Also, in the comments of this chapter, if you've ever wanted to be in TC2G, leave a visual description of your character in the comments along with what they fight with/fighting style! (I don't need name or personality traits.) I won't tell you what I need those for, you'll find out eventually :).