Okay something about John Greggory has driven me nuts. I decided to write this story where he learns that the dark can sometimes be the best weapon. I don't own the Last Apprentice but I own my original characters. I hope this isn't OOC . . . well, maybe a little.

EDIT by ElvenHalfling: Hey, hey, everybody! This is Sapphire Serina Riddle's most frequent reviewer. I often review her chapters and end the review with "Love your Little Sister," as that is what she jokingly calls me. I have just popped in to leave you lovely readers a little note: When she says "but I own my original characters," what she really means to say is OUR. Some of my characters are used in this story (although I have nothing to do with it), and I just felt I deserved the mention. Hope you don't mind. :)

Now, back to the story!

Chapter One
Meeting The Spook

"Look, he wasn't too kind to us last time we were here either." Dazara reminded me as her black hair moved around her shoulders; some hung half way down her back. She had been silent as we walked most of the time together, but now her black eyes were worried as she voiced her concerns to me, which I understood completely. "And why didn't you decide to bring Tara with you to see him? Why did you say it was me that should come with you?"

"It was about eight years ago when we were last here, Dazara, and he noticed that you were dark as you always have been and always will be. If he sees you again, he might realize what I've been saying for most of my life, since he told me that we shouldn't fight with you. Sometimes you have to fight the dark with the dark."

I reminded her also why we had returned in the first place.

My black hair was to my waist and kept out of my face by and intricate complex braid known as an Elvin braid. My eyes were light green and showed her I wasn't worried at all in the evening light.

"He hates me because I'm from the dark," Dazara said as the sun nearly disappeared. It was twilight, a perfect time to approach him if he was home, which Nightmare had assured us he was from gossip he had heard in the town with the others. "Even though we tried to explain to him that darkness is not all bad, but he doesn't believe us. We all know it depends on the heart of the one that controls it."

"If you recall, sweet sister, he said you and all the dark people among us would soon betray us and we would all die afterward. He said it would happen in five years time, at the least. Seven years at the most. Yet here we stand together still going strong as friends. We proved his theory wrong and now we can tell him the truth about the land beyond the pass, the one he went to as a new Spook."

"What was his name again?" Dazara said as we came to the bell we would ring.

"John Gregory, and you all better come stand by me, my children!" I called. Out of the bushes nearby came sixteen small werewolf cubs that ran over to me quickly.

"How did you know we had followed you, mom?" Darkness (the oldest of them) asked, curious as to how I had known.

"Because I'm your mother, Darkness, and have a sixth sense when it comes to my dear children." I rang the bell.

"I hope this is a good idea," Dazara said again for the eighth time since we had decided to return.

"Dazara, the darkness in this world is getting too strong. The fiend has returned and five Spooks have been killed by him. One was an apprentice to John. That is saying something; and the boy John has as an apprentice now is in more danger than most Spooks. The fiend wants him. Alice, a young witch that is living with them now, is the fiend's daughter who gave Tom the apprentice a blood jar with his and her blood mixed. The Spook doesn't know yet and it is best he never does. If he does then the Spook will never finish teaching Tom to be a Spook."

Then I heard someone coming to see who had rung the bell. I heard the footsteps stop and turn and run back. "I think that was Tom and he felt you," I giggled. "He felt your darkness. I bet he thinks it's the fiend in disguise and doesn't want to take that chance."

"He has to be the... what was it again?" Dazara said.

"The seventh son of a seventh son," I said and giggled again. "Good thing our world doesn't have superstitions like that, otherwise I'd still be an orphan and be treated like I'm worthless. The Trinity changed my life."

"One more question: Why did Tom run away if he has a blood jar?" Dazara and I sat down.

"That is a good question. The only possibility is that he didn't have it with him." I shrugged. "Or maybe he thought it was best to go get John in case it was the Fiend." Then I said: "Kids, stay here. The man we are here to see has a Bogart that protects the border around his house." The cubs ran back over to me and continued to play with each other. We waited for only a little while before I heard them coming silently as possible. There was four of them: The Spook, Tom, Alice and the Bogart. I motioned for the kids to hide and Dazara and I climbed a tree.

As they entered the clearing, Tom relaxed a little. "It was someone and I still feel it, but stronger now," he whispered to the Spook.

He nodded and said: "The person you felt is still here."

I covered my mouth. The Bogart was sniffing the bushes in a cat form and came out with a small scratch on his nose, moving it uncomfortably. He had gotten that from Melody. She was going to be a little bit of a fighter with him if he got too close. He started to sniff the bushes again and this time he yowled and jumped back. Melody was hanging from his nose by her teeth. She let go and bolted back under the bush.

"What was that? A squirrel?" Alice asked.

I was trying not laugh hysterically at her comment. "No, but I don't know what it was." The Spook went over the bush and started to poke it with his staff. Melody bolted to another bush. "I looks like a puppy," the spook said.

"I'M NOT A PUPPY!" Melody shouted. "I"M A WEREWOLF! MY UNCLE WILL HURT YOU IF YOU TRY AND HURT ME OR ANY OF MY BROTHERS OR SISTERS OR MY MOM OR MY AUNT!"

I couldn't help it I broke out laughing. "That was so entertaining!" I had to say and Dazara and I both jumped down from the tree. "Hello John Greggory, it is nice to see you again," I said, smiling.

"Oh, it's you again." Then he saw Dazara and said: "I see my prediction was wrong."

"Absolutely wrong from the beginning. We knew you were wrong and me and my dear sister stand together still."

"Well, I see it's just two of you and the werewolf..."

"No, not one, but sixteen. Kids!" The kids came and congregated around my feet. "The others are still in town. We are together still going strong (with a few exceptions). Wolf and Hope both have eight children now like I have sixteen. Krane has been dismissed and Flynn the elf has taken his place." I smiled. "All and all we are not having any trouble standing strong together."

"Okay, I have one question. How in the heck did you give birth to sixteen werewolves?" He was asking a question I didn't want to answer. Luckily Kojiko the phoenix saved me, because at that moment he arrived in the clearing singing Barbie Girl one of his favorite songs (mostly because it annoyed all of us so badly). He started to do an accompanying dance routine.

"And you still have that annoying bird." The Spook remembered Kojiko. He wasn't easy to forget. "Has he lost his sanity yet?"

"Sometimes I wonder," Dazara and I said in unison.