Tom's POV

They just vanished. Teleported away to wherever they wanted to go to and left us all to face these newcomers with no clue of their capabilities. Great lot of help they turned out to be. We all exchanged wary looks, still untrustworthy of one another and attempting to predict the others next move but nobody acted upon their paranoia. We merely turned in sync away from where the gods had stood to stare into the distance, awaiting the arrivals. And one by one they came.

I couldn't recognise the first person but Sonja and Tucker yelled with happiness and raced over to meet her. Screams and hugs and giggles could be heard and seen from where we stood until she walked over to us, Tucker and Sonja arm in arm with her. Jordan and I nodded in greetings, keeping our distance from the unknown girl.

She introduced herself as Lisette. She didn't seem out of sorts but her golden eyes indicated which side she stood with. She was a Mianitee but not a member of the Shadows. Lisette had long black hair with bangs covering one of her eyes, she was dressed in a grey hoodie with a dark blue shirt barely visible underneath and her ripped skinny jeans were eye catching to say the least. From what she told us, she loved reading (which immediately got Jordan's attention) and dancing but had experienced a lot of bullying for her love of video games. After questioning how she arrived her, the stories seemed far too similar. She had awoken in a village surrounded by testificates with the same touchscreen watch on her arm and when she called for help, she saw Jordan's message and had ran all the way to where we stood now. Her experience of the dark figure through her monitor was identical to what we all experienced and nothing seemed out of sorts with her. Jordan being oddly abrupt for once asked her what her fighting skills were and she merely shook her head at the offered sword and shot an arrow directly into the button next to the portal over 60 blocks away. Needless to say we didn't challenge her after that. Oddly I kept hearing an odd voice in my head, talking to me and answering my spoken aloud questions, whilst Jordan observed with a quizzical look. I glanced over at Lisette to confirm my suspicions, apparently we had a telepathic among us. Just great.

Soon another person arrived via flight which astonished us but this was a familiar face to us all, Nyx. Jordan commented on her new found flying abilities which she merely grinned in response too before hugging him. I hi-fived my fellow Dianitee whilst the others hugged her and took in her new appearance. Her long brown hair was now up in a ponytail, allowing her darker brown eyes to be seen more clearly. She wore a light blue t-shirt with dark black jeans and white converse style shoes, with a scabbard attached to her jeans in which her treasured diamond sword lay. She had been our best friend for years and it was amazing to see her again despite the circumstances, so naturally her welcome was warm as was her attitude towards Lisette. We all conversed for a while before lapsing into silence as we awaited the Ianitee's arrival. Thankfully we didn't have to wait long.

The Ianitee walked over in silence and grasped Jordan in the biggest hug before repeating the gesture to me. I hugged back as hard as I could, it was Chelcie! It had been 4 years since we had last seen her in the flesh, so we stepped back to see her properly. Her once straight black hair now had purple tips which were as dominant as her light hazel eyes and her clothing style had changed. She now wore laced up combat boots and ripped skinny jeans, a black shirt covered by her leather jacket and an ear cuff. Strapped to her back was a bow and quiver, the arrows tipped with purple feathers. She nodded towards Tucker and Sonja whom she remembered slightly and introduced herself to the other girls. I smiled fondly, reminiscing of how much she loved to read and swim, as well as the compelling sassiness of her nature. Her story too was that she had awoke here and had found us through Jordan's message. She explained how she had run from the orphanage despite Jordan and his family loving her so because of the cruel workers that were meant to take care of her. In response to the power question, she merely teleported rapidly around Jordan, making him dizzy until we admitted defeat. She announced that she had seen a glimpse of the final member of the prophecy along the way and stated that she was actually quite nice to which we gave her a skeptical look.

A dark cloud rumbled on the horizon, with shadows creeping closer and closer to us all, causing weapons to be drawn and battle positions to be prepared for what was coming towards us at a horrifying speed. What came over the horizon was not at all what we had expected. It was another girl. This girl wore a face tight mask covering all her hair and face, not an inch of what she looked like was visible except her eyes. They were a piercing blue colour, mixed in with grey and green which reminded me of the sea on a rough day and were filled with a circular ring of light grey, almost purple like which indicated that she was Ianite, but a part of something else. Her mask covered everything, meaning that the only emotions visible were portrayed through her eyes and those eyes looked full of a past. She wore a red hoodie that covered her arms and blue jeans, with red converse and a pair of purple headphones situated around her neck which echoed with dampened dubstep music. As she approached we all pulled our weapons into her line of sight and observed her reaction, her eyes filling with suspicion but not one inkling of fear. Jordan was the first to speak.

J - "Who are you."

? - "I have two names. Which one are you interested in?"

T - "Both of them."

C - "Fine. I am known as Caitlin or as Shadow, depends what mood you catch me in."

S - "What the hell do you mean by that."

N - "This doesn't make sense."

Ch - "Who even is she?"

Tu - "Some crazy chic, just shoot her already."

L - "Lets just ask her what her power is."

She stepped back and raised her arms, astonishing us as shadows rose from the ground in a wave of blackness causing us all to jump backwards in fear. The shadows raised upwards into spikes and daggers before falling back to earth like liquid dropping into a glass without a sound. The shadows reared closer to Tucker, grazing his face with a sharp cut in vengeance for his cruel comment. Jordan observed with awe and surprise in his eyes, whilst the others all observed her with anger and expectation. However when. Tucker stepped forward with his sword raised both Jordan and Chelcie stepped into his path and disarmed him.

Tu - "What the hell guys she's clearly part of the Shadows?! Her name is even Shadow for crying out loud."

Jordan's POV

Whilst everyone was threatening and interrogating the newcomer, I was observing her more closely along with Chelcie. At a simple glance, she clearly had a connection with the shadows whether it was past or present but when you looked into her eyes it was a deeper connection than that, a memory of pain was more prominent to what little we could see of her. Nyx soon got sick of Tucker's pointless accusations and flew him to the top of the cliff to give us a few moments of peace. Looking around at the others, Tom was wary, Sonja was more worried about Tucker, Chelcie's expression was filled with fear - seemingly not for herself though which was odd. However Lisette was what confused me the most, her telepathy was key into understanding people however her look was of grief and empathy, not distrust and confusion. I cocked an eyebrow at her, awaiting some form of information to explain our scenario but I received none.

Chelcie suddenly turned rapidly, seeming to sense another person beside us. I turned too, drawing my sword only to quickly sheath it as the gods approached - Tucker and Nyx trailing behind them. Tom started calling them out and questioning their motives for bringing us all together but he was halted abruptly by Dianite shaking his head at him, silencing him instantly. The gods all turned to look at one another before staring at us all in turn, meeting the newcomers eyes for longer than usual. Soon Sonja stepped forward and asked the questions we had been dying to know the answer to.

S - "Why are we here."

Dianite - "To fulfill the riddle. That is your sole purpose here. All of you have a role to play, some more than most."

C - "Fine. Why am I here? I have no connection to the people who clearly know one another!"

Ianite - "Be patient my child. Your role is one of the most important. You will learn your purpose soon."

Ch - "Why are we all of a sudden on the same side? I thought Tucker was evil? Gone rogue as it were?"

N - "I always thought it was Dianite who was the bad guy..."

Dianite - "For once my child I am not to blame."

L - "Excuse me my lord, but why are we assembled here."

Mianite - "The scenario set in the prophecy will occur in one months time when the moon is in position for the correct spawnage. Make your lives here and await our call, get to know one another and prepare to play your roles."

Ianite - "Good luck my heroes. Do not lose yourself to the darkness."

Dianite - "We will not appear to you again until the day of the prophecy. Goodbye."

And with those cryptic words they vanished. Great. Why do they keep doing that? Seriously?!

We all stood, staring around at one another not really knowing what to say. The sun was beginning to set and the deadly night was approaching yet none of us moved a muscle, merely staring warily around wanting someone else to make the first move. Nyx was the first to break the silence.

N - "What are we doing standing around like this? Night is coming and personally I would rather not come face to face with a creeper."

J - "Maybe we should all stay in our respective bases? Meet up in the morning?"

L - "That would work but where will Nyx, Chelcie, Caitlin and I go?"

T - "Nyx can come with me, Chelcie with Jordan, Lisette with Sonja and Caitlin with Tucker."

C - "Hell no. I'll go stay in the courthouse."

Tu - "Hey! That's rude!"

S - "Tucker just let her go. Come on Lisette. See you all in the morning."

And so Chelcie and I observed as the respective pairs walked back to their bases for the night, Lisette and Sonja talking and laughing, Tom and Nyx sniggering and messing around whilst Tucker stormed off and Caitlin walked soundlessly to the courthouse with the shadows curling around her feet.

This was going to be a long month.

A/N

Yay for OC'S!

I know this chapter was more of a filler to introduce the new characters but it was necessary :)

Hope you all liked the chapter, and know that the story is definitely not over yet :)

Be patient with me and updating ok? I've got my mock exams in January and studying is my priority.

For those who read Even Gods Can Fall (a tc fan fiction also by me) a special surprise is coming for when we hit 50,000 reads!

I am also planning on starting a new TC fan fiction but that's in the works.

Keep an eye out :D

- Caitlin