Having been on his own for a few hours now, Jesse found himself with no luck or much less, any way of completing his deal before his deadline expired. Lost, confused and scared, he ran into an alleyway and silently cried, realizing that Castor was right.

This was a stupid mistake! Jesse didn't know what he was doing. He was going to fail and Narcissa was going to end up collecting his soul, or worse — Overwhelmed, Jesse broke down once more, wishing he had someone to help him.

"Come check this out!"

Slightly peeking his head up, Jesse saw a woman roughly around his age calling to the attention of her friends. As he stared at her blackberry dress and black sandals, Jesse caught a glimpse of her necklace, which look so similar to his, but... that should be impossible, right?

Jesse sworn he didn't tell anyone about visiting the sea witch, not even Aliya. So, how... Shaking his head, he frowned, holding himself closer. There was no way anyone was coming to help him out, so he buried himself back into his chest, holding his knees closer to him.

By now, Jesse heard two more voices and footsteps, knowing one of the voices he heard had to be familiar. He just didn't know which one or how it was familiar to him. "Hey, kid. Where are your parents?" a voice asked, a light tenderness in her tone as she came across as concern.

Although Jesse wanted to answer, he knew he couldn't, so he kept quiet. After all, it's not like he had a choice anymore.

"Hey—" she began once more, only to cut herself off when Jesse had lift his head up. As he stared at the girl in front of him, Jesse noticed she had a necklace similar to his too, which was a surprise. It was only after the two made eye contact that Jesse saw her eyes glowing with a faint golden hue before turning back to a normal shade of brown as his eyes widened while she stepped back, clearly in shock much like he was upon seeing her.

Someone had come to help him after all, but more so, it was someone that Jesse knew.

Maybe, this wouldn't be so bad after all.

~~~~~~~~~

"No way, that can't possibly be Jesse," Jaxon insisted, crossing their arms upon seeing him. "Jax, it's clearly Jesse. I saw his eyes turn pink, which is similar to the color of his wings," Aliya stubbornly pointed out. "If you don't believe me, you're welcome to look for yourself," she added, stepping back as Jaxon stepped forward.

When Jaxon and Jesse made eye contact, Jax saw what Aliya meant as a faint pink hue flash over Jesse's eyes before returning a normal shade of brown. Stepping back, Jaxon nearly tripped over their own feet as Lillian and Aliya each caught their arm. Helping Jaxon stand up, they gasped.

"That is Jesse!"

"I told you!" Aliya smugly exclaimed, crossing her arms with a triumphant look. "You should go see for yourself too, Libby," Jaxon told their sister as she abruptly laughed, shaking her head afterwards. "Ah, no thank you," she respectfully declined.

"Besides, if I get close, I'm just going to pulverize him," she added, observing the way Jesse eyed her in fear as Lillian smirked. "Libby, you're scaring him!" Jaxon protested as she shrugged. "Good. He deserves to be scared as it serves him right for making us fetch him," she countered back as Jesse immediately stood up, glancing at the trio in fear.

"Come on, Jesse. Let's take you back to Avalon, so your parents can quit freaking out," Lillian began, trying to approach him when Jesse fearfully backed away before darting away from the trio. "... and we got a runner," she later mumbled as Jaxon darkly glared at her.

"Nice going, Libby!" Jaxon angrily snapped as Lillian blinked, partially surprised by the reaction. "Jax, we got bigger issues than yelling at your sister," Aliya sharply interjected, much to Jaxon's annoyance. "Now, come on," she firmly ordered, forcing Lillian and Jaxon to listen.

"We got to go find him."

~~~~~~~~~~

Running as fast as he could, Jesse refused to look back. He thought he wanted help, but now Jesse would much prefer if he remained alone. If he made his way to Aliya, Jaxon and Lillian, they would only drag him back to Avalon where his miserable life awaited him.

As he caught his breath, the boy sighed to himself looking around. He was far enough from the trio, so Jesse thought he take a small break, collect his thoughts then go back to picking up the pace to maintain his lead against the three friends. Unfortunately, his break didn't last long.

Not long after, Jesse heard footsteps and tensed up, expecting to run if Lillian or Jaxon caught up to him [with Aliya, he was willing to stay and hear her out]. Instead of seeing Aliya or the Kiernan siblings, he saw a stranger wearing a beige coat. However when the two made eye contact, Jesse saw a flash of a white tint through their eyes.

"You must be my target," the stranger spoke as Jesse shook his head and moving his hands toward his neck, shaking his hands in a side-by-side direction, trying to tell the stranger that he wasn't their target. Jesse tried walking back, but tripped over his own feet as the stranger smirked, pulling out a ice sword.

"You know, I got paid good money to kill you here because I expected you were going to be a challenge, but no. You might be my easiest kill in a long time," the stranger spoke, summoning a ice sword.

"Any last words?" the stranger asked, raising their ice sword as Jesse flinched, raising his arm to his face. However, when Jesse heard the sound of ice shattering, he slowly lowered his arm to see the lid of a trash bin vibrating on the ground and the stranger on the ground, unconscious.

Turning around, Jesse thought he was getting a hug out of her but instead, Aliya went straight to Lillian, much to his annoyance. "Can you create a portal before the assassin wakes up?" Aliya asked as Lillian nodded. "I'll try," she said, taking a deep breath.

"It would be best to pair up now," Lillian insisted before closing her eyes. As she called to the shadows, her eyes opened, revealing a darker teal color as she used the shadows to create a portal. After Jaxon and Jesse went inside, Aliya grabbed Lillian and followed suit.

As the shadows faded back into the night, the stranger woke up to see the portal closing from behind the group. Standing up, a devilish gleam formed in their eyes. "Alright, you want to play? Let's play," the stranger spoke, liking a good challenge and determined to make good on their promise to their boss.

"Let the chase begin."

~~~~~~~~~~~

Landing in a empty room, Jaxon caught Lillian from falling as she held her head. "I'm fine," she protested, weakly grinning as Aliya shook her head. "No, but once you get some rest, you will," Jaxon insisted, walking Lillian to one of the beds and keeping their eyes on her.

After ensuring that their sister was asleep, Jaxon made their way to the balcony where they found Aliya leaning against the rail, taking a deep breath. "Oh, hey," she greeted though Jaxon could see the tiredness in her eyes. "You should get some rest," they insisted as Aliya brushed aside their suggestion.

"I'm serious, go get some rest. I'll take first watch," Jaxon sincerely offered, observing as Aliya suppressed her yawn. "Nonsense. I'm fine," she said, once again dismissing their concern. "How's Lillian?" she followed up as Jaxon sighed. "Fine, thankfully. It just her powers always leave Libby drained of her energy," they admitted before Jaxon glanced sideways, not seeing the love fairy in sight.

"Where is Jesse?" they curiously asked as Aliya pointed towards the bed on the left corner, where Jaxon saw Jesse asleep on the bed. "He fell asleep not long after Lillian did," she briefly answered when Jaxon saw her suppress another yawn.

"You need to get some rest. Why don't you try to sleep next to Lillian? She's not much of a kicker..." they offered before pausing. "At least, I'm confident that she's not a kicker," they followed up as Aliya lightly chuckled. "Thanks, but I might pass," she gently said as Jaxon chuckled. "Yeah, you can never be too safe with Libby," they joked before sighing.

"Well, would sleeping next to Jesse help?" Jaxon suggested as Aliya shook her head, much to their excitement. "No, not really. If anything, I think sleeping next to him would make things worse," she said, noticing the sudden relief in Jax's eyes and tone.

"However, you are more than welcome to sleep next to him if you want," she casually suggested, smugly grinning when Jaxon's face grew brighter. "W... What?" they meekly asked, their face heating up. "Why is my face burning?" Jaxon asked as Aliya giggled from their response.

"It's called blushing, Jax. The humans show their emotions through their face, while we show ours by our hair," she softly answered as Jaxon nodded. "It's okay to have a crush on Jesse, you know. No one is going to judge you here," she followed up as Jaxon eyed her in shock. "You knew?" they asked as she nodded. "For how long?" They followed up.

"Awhile now," she cheekily answered with a grin of her own. "You're not exactly clever when it comes to hiding your feelings, at least not with me. I'm pretty sure if I had said yes to sleeping with the love fairy, this conversation would have a different tone," she followed up, this time failing to suppress her yawn as Jaxon took notice.

Jaxon decided to continue to have this conversation with her at another time. For now, they really wanted the girl to get some rest. "Will you please go get some sleep?" Jaxon urgently pleaded. "I would, I really would, but..." she softly began before trailing off as she turned to face the sky.

"I don't think sleeping would help me in general," she finished, continuing to face the sky. "How so?" they curiously asked, facing the girl as Aliya debated whether or not to tell Jaxon.

With the knight, the two could just talk to each other about their nightmares on hour's ends, often comforting each other with little to no trouble. She would have gone to him in a heartbeat, but Castor was back in Avalon, healing his injuries in her house, so he wasn't a option.

With Castor eliminated, Aliya thought about telling Lillian, but the dark-powered faerie was asleep and Jesse.... Well, she didn't feel comfortable telling the love fairy when half of her nightmares revolved around him hurting her (whether it was him as Cain, mind-controlled or simply himself, the end result always remained the same). Besides, he had his own issues that needed solving.

So, that left Jaxon. It's not that she didn't trust them (she did); it was whether or not, Aliya was mentally ready to get laughed at or have her issues brushed aside. Deciding she was simply overthinking this whole matter, Aliya chose to open up to Jaxon.

"The nightmares," she slowly began, subconsciously rubbing her wrist. "What do you usually dream about?" Jaxon curiously asked, knowing she would need to elaborate on her problems. Unfortunately, when she began tensing up, that's when they knew something was wrong.

Their fears only grew when they tried calling out to her. When she didn't respond, they frequently shook the girl, actively trying to get a response out of her. However when Jaxon realized she froze herself in place, their eyes widened.

"Aliya!"

~~~~~~~~~

Mind Sequence

As Aliya found herself in a pitch black room, it didn't take her long to realize she was trapped in her mind as she felt her heart racing, the same fear and adrenaline that would never let her go. "No, no, no..." she mumbled with panic, trying to wake herself up through attacking her body.

"Wake up, wake up, wake up," she told herself, quickly panicking as she tugged on her hair and violently slapping herself just to get some kind of reaction to register to herself that she needed to wake up.

"Come on, come on, come on," she frantically tried telling herself, tensing up when she heard footsteps. Once she heard the footsteps, it was only a matter of who approached her that would determine how the rest of her night would go.

Some nights, it was Jesse (either in his true form or other alterations of him). On other nights, it was Iris and occasionally, she would even get the Avalonians who ripped her wings off with iron and left her for dead in the ocean. Only recently though, did Shiron start plaguing her mind and each time he came, he always had that crazed look in his eyes and never without his fire sword.

When she tried backing away, the flames forming a force field around her, trapping her from within the barrier. Aliya didn't need confirmation then, but once she heard a screeching sound of the blade, she knew for sure who she was facing. A dreadful sigh escaped her lips, knowing tonight was going to be dubbed "miserable."

Perhaps, Shiron was the latest Avalonian to plague her mind or he was genuinely the second one to strike fear into her since the Avalonians who dismembered her authentic wings that night, Aliya wasn't fully sure as to why, but he was the one she disliked facing the most.

Iris was cruel and manipulative, yes, but she was predictable, so those nights weren't truly terrible. If anything, having Jesse on some nights made it harder on her because Aliya found the line between friend and foe frequently blurred, leaving her reluctant to fight him, even in this dream-like state.

But the love fairy's father? She thought Shiron made Iris look like a saint and made his son tolerable compared to him. In fact, she wished she had one of them instead of the fire-starter, who made her body tense just by using the sound of his voice.

"My, my, my. Growing up to become quite the liar, are we?" she heard Shiron's voice ask her, cruelly mocking her as Aliya forced herself to turn around, observing as his blade dragged onto the ground, a trail of flames followed from behind him. "But I'm feeling merciful, so I'll give you another chance to be truthful," he calmly told her, a darkness hiding in his tone.

"Where is my son?" he slowly repeated, now approaching the girl, who stared at him with fear as her body trembled from the mere sight of him. "He's here in the human realm like I told you," she insisted, trying to control her shaken voice around Shiron, but who was she kidding?

From the get-go, she found herself nervous about Jesse's father after he revealed his plan of killing her with his flames. But as he gradually grew more aggressive with his questions, dismissed her truths for lies and pointed the tip of the blade directly to her throat, that nervousness evolved to fear.

Perhaps, that's why she couldn't fool herself here within her own mind. Aliya knew he was a threat and no amount of her façade was going to make the truth any easier to swallow. She was genuinely afraid of Shiron and every fiber of her body knew this for a fact.

Nothing would ever change that.

"Aw, what a shame. Even when given the chance to tell the truth, you still choose to lie," Shiron coldly began, a devilish smirk forming as Aliya's eyes widened, falling onto her knees as the smoke began getting to her.

As she coughed, she tried to stand back up, only for Shiron to push her directly into the force field, her back aching from the direct exposure to the flames as Aliya bit her tongue, resisting the urge to scream.

"Tell me, how long do you expect your friends to believe you?" Shiron promptly asked, holding the sword directly to her throat as the tip of the blade began piercing into her skin. When she didn't answer [mainly because the smoke and the intense pain was getting to her], he only laughed.

"It can't be for much longer," he answered for her. "Especially when each one of your friends come to their senses and realize what a terrible person you are. A liar, a thief, a crook, nothing about you is worth saving," Shiron continued, grinning as he stared at the girl's weakened state.

"So, your friends will make the right decision and leave you, because you know why?"  he persisted, balancing the sword for a brief moment, a malicious look in his eyes as Aliya tried to speak, only for everything to start spinning. "Freaks like you never last long!" Shiron darkly exclaimed, aiming the sword directly at her as she flinched.

"Aliya!"

~~~~~~~~

Opening her eyes, Aliya struggled to stand as she fell on her knees, barely using herself for support as she began coughing. As her vision adjusted, she realized she was still in the human realm with Jaxon and Lillian. She wasn't on the verge of dying and Shiron wasn't here to finish her off.

The three found Jesse and escaped an assassin, hiding out in this empty building Lillian found in the midst of teleporting everyone to safety. Lillian was asleep in an attempt to regain her energy and Jesse fell asleep not long after. She was outside trying to clear her mind when Jaxon approached her and the two talked. Everything was fine, so why did everything hurt so much?

Looking up, her vision slowly stopped spinning before she could fully focus on seeing Jaxon and their concerned look. "J.. Jax?" she said, barely recognizing her own voice as Jaxon helped her stand. "You're okay!" they exclaimed before grabbing her by the shoulders and shaking her.

"Do not pull this stunt on me again!" they exclaimed, stopping themselves from shaking Aliya further, who could hardly speak at the moment. "I was so worried for you!" they concernedly added as Aliya weakly nodded. "I know and I'm really sorry," she sincerely said, feeling terrible for scaring Jax.

She had wanted to tell Jax everything when Aliya spotted a figure out of the corner of her eyes. As it was dark, she couldn't really make them out, only that the figure had a shadow-like form, which was odd, so she thought about alarming Jaxon to the stranger on the roof, believing it was the assassin the four managed to escape from earlier when Aliya felt a sharp pain in her head.

Aliya didn't mean to alarm Jaxon, but when she gripped her head and fell on her knees, she felt the area spinning again. She knew Jaxon was saying something, but she barely heard them. She could barely hear or focus on anything, but she tried calling out to Jax nonetheless. Only instead of Jaxon, Aliya found someone else directly in front of her.

"So, you're the one causing so much trouble," the figure from the roof began, shifting from their shadow-like form to a more physical one.

Switching out their shadow form for the purple skin and a dark blue and white suit, the figure flipped his long, sliver hair as he eyed the girl in front of her with wonder. On the other hand, Aliya couldn't help but notice the number of Avalonian symbols engraved on his body.

"To think all of this is for some boy who would never do the same for you," the figure began, holding onto her chin as Aliya tried to push the figure away from her to no avail.

"Now, hold still," the figure strictly began, pulling Aliya closer as the figure held onto the necklace Castor gave her, focusing on the gemstone and ignoring her weak attempts to escape from the figure's grasp.

"I knew there was something special about you," the figure began as a wicked smirk grew from the result of their findings. "Gold is such a rare color, you know. Gold usually means you hardly know about the powers you possess, so this should be fun," the figure continued as Aliya glared in the figure's direction.

"I don't have any powers," she countered back, struggling to break free. "Also, who are you?" she asked as the figure snapped their fingers, a series of shadow-like ropes tying her up. "You have got to be kidding me right now," Aliya irritatedly mumbled, tugging on the shadow ropes with no success.

She thought about calling out to Jax when Aliya realized they weren't around. In fact, she wasn't even on the balcony anymore. She... she was just surrounded in darkness with only this strange being as company.

"The name is Erebus, little one," he began as he snapped his fingers. As she made direct eye contact with Erebus and dropped her attempts to escape, Aliya quickly realized her actions weren't by her own doing. So, she naturally tried talking her way out of whatever was about to await her next.

"Anyways, I'm sure you got the wrong person here, so if you let me go, I'll pretend that I never met you. No one would even know of your existence. Sounds fair?" Aliya directly told him as Erebus laughed, viewing her response as humorous.

"Oh, trust me. I've had my eye on you for some time," Erebus countered back. "I've just never been able to reach you until now," he continued, gesturing to the necklace in her possession as the reason for their encounter. "So, you see, I didn't make a mistake," he began as shivers ran down the girl's spine.

"Now, you're going to help me by becoming my champion and aiding me in eliminating my rival's champion before the boy manages to find the location of my scepter and gem of eternal darkness," Erebus continued as Aliya couldn't help but laugh, catching his attention.

"Look, I'm not doing anything," Aliya firmly stated, wanting to move her hands before realizing Erebus froze her hands from moving. "I'm not going to be your champion and I'm not going to help you eliminate Jesse," she stubbornly continued, much to Erebus's disappointment.

"You know, it's not common for me to give my victims a choice before I kill them, but even in spite of your poor decision, I won't kill you," Erebus began as he sighed, shaking his head at the girl for disappointing him.

"Rather, I wanted to give you a choice because I felt you had so much potential inside you, but clearly Atticus was right about you. You'll really need to shed your human shell if you want to succeed," Erebus continued as her eyes widened upon hearing Atticus's name.

"Atticus? What does he—"

"But no matter!" Erebus loudly proclaimed, ignoring the girl's response. "I gave you a choice and you chose poorly, so I'm here to fix you," Erebus began as Aliya nervously chuckled, realizing that she was in danger. "I just need to work in complete silence," he insisted, summoning a shadow rope.

Before Aliya could even protest, Erebus tied the rope around the girl's mouth before snapping his fingers once more. Aliya who began muffling underneath the shadow rope found herself rendered in silence as as he gently tugged on her cheek, only being able to helplessly watch.

"Trust me, little one," Erebus softly assured her, a devilish grin forming as his gemstone glowed. "It's for your own good, little one," he added, stroking her head and ignoring the discomfort Aliya felt in the moment. 'You will see. Plus..." Erebus paused, grinning as his eyes began turning black.

"You'll thank you later for this."

~~~~~~~~~

Jaxon kept searching for Aliya, literally on the verge of waking their sister up when they saw the girl reappear on the balcony. Sighing in relief, Jax realized they were genuinely scared because nothing like this has ever happened to their friend before. But, she was here now, so maybe everything was okay... right?

"Aliya!" Jax happily exclaimed, sighing in relief once more. "Again, you have got to stop scaring me like this!" Jaxon firmly insisted, preparing to hug her when Aliya released a chuckle unlike her own, forcing Jaxon to freeze in place. It was here that they realized Aliya's back was turned to them, casually spinning a dagger in her possession.

While Jaxon knew she carried weapons on her, they knew this for a fact this weapon in her hand wasn't hers as she wasn't one to carry daggers on her, having disliked the small appeal. It was why she always carried knives on her instead.

Plus this dagger had a shadow-like glow and as far as they knew, Aliya wasn't one to control the shadows, much less do anything related to magic. Their sister could only manipulate the shadows and she was asleep, drained from teleporting everyone in an attempt to escape the assassin after Jesse.

"You were always the weak one," Aliya began, but Jaxon sworn they heard another voice out of her as she stepped out of the shadows. "A... Aliya?" Jaxon nervously stammered, slowly stepping back as they noticed the gemstone on her — Castor's necklace — was no longer golden, but now completely black altogether.

So when they made eye contact with the girl, a shiver ran down their spine, realizing her eyes were also black. Catching the dagger mid-air, Aliya stared at them, a cruel smirk forming on the tips of her lips. "You should be easy to take out," she insisted, keeping her tone emotionless.

As Jaxon's eyes widened, they couldn't help but wonder their friend was acting like this when everything she was doing was so... out of character for her. So when Aliya began raising the dagger at them as if they were a threat, Jaxon knew they had to move now or risk being in the girl's crossfires.

"Aliya, come on. This isn't you," Jaxon insisted, never believing they would have to be the one to talk the girl out of her possession. They didn't even think it was possible for the girl to get possessed! If anything, she always seemed like the farthest person from ever being possessed.

"You must have known this is who I've always been, Jax," she insisted as Jaxon heard a blend of her and another voice speak to them. "Your friend has always been tainted by darkness, this is just the start of who she'll eventually become," the second voice spoke, using Aliya's mouth to grin.

"But if you want her back, give me the boy and I'll release her from my spell," the voice continued, dancing around them as Jaxon furiously shook their head. "No way!" they immediately exclaimed as the voice used Aliya's body to step back before relying on her mouth to laugh.

"You call her a friend, but you're too selfish to help her," the voice mocked. "No. I just know she wouldn't want me giving Jesse up to anyone, no matter the circumstances," Jaxon firmly countered back as the second voice laughed with a hint of mock cruelty undertone in the laugh.

"Well, if asking kindly won't work, then I'll just get to the boy myself by using force," the second voice spoke before using Aliya's body to charge at them. Jaxon always thought they were fast, but Aliya quickly proved them wrong. They could barely plan ahead without Aliya being a step forward.

For every move they threw, it was another effortless block from the girl. If anything, she became a speed-demon with her enhanced speed, something they never thought to be possible before. So, when Aliya forcibly pinned them to the wall and held the dagger in her grasp, Jaxon couldn't stop themselves from not freaking out.

"Aliya!" Jaxon quickly exclaimed, now realizing that her name would be associated with fear for them. "Please stop, it's me," they pleaded, their voice cracking as they heard the dagger drop. When Jaxon glanced up, they saw Aliya releasing their shirt as she stepped back, her eyes quickly returning to normal as the gemstone returned to its golden hue.

"J... Jax," Aliya weakly began, sounding out-of-breath as she fell with Jaxon barely catching her in time. "Let's just get you inside," Jaxon insisted, helping her stand as they wrapped her left arm around their shoulder.

As the two walked inside, Erebus watched from afar, smirking as he held a miniature version of Aliya in his hand. He chose to let the girl go as a test to see if he truly wanted to continue using her and well, she didn't disappoint. As he reappeared on the roof, Erebus couldn't help but laugh in delight.

Finally, he had a champion worthy of stopping the boy from reaching his prized relics and more importantly, he had a direct link to stopping Narcissa. Everything was now coming together for him.

"Watch out, Narcissa. You haven't seen nothing yet."