Chapter: 9

The iconic blue light filled the dark guild Sanctuary. As the light dimmed and disappeared, the old gypsy Theresa stood in it's place. She came waiting for the arrival of the heroes.

The darkness of the Guild's remains brought on darker memories to the Seeress. Just standing there, Theresa could see all the blood that had been spilled over the years, guilty and innocent blood alike. She stood in the center as she often did, but she could not stop the emotions welling inside of her. More memories of her first visit to the chamber filled her mind. When she said goodbye to her family for the last time. Where she lost her mother and was saved by her brother.

During her earlier years she had taught herself to be more cold, more emotionless, but never fully grasped it. Before the Spire, she had no full control over her own powers, but that was not all, she also had no control over her own inner turmoil. The pains she had suffered over the years, that were repeatedly put aside to be ignored.

Almost instinctively, Theresa raised a hand to the side of her face, near her eyes. It was a motion she hadn't preformed in years, during that time she always felt her cloth, a grim reminder of her fate. Now all she feels is her own flesh, serving as its own reminder for how much things have changed.

As she lamented over her own memories, a familiar feeling crept into her senses. It was an old, unmistakeable feeling of fear, sorrow, and despair. Theresa knew the feeling all too well, and what caused it. The cause was the last thing she ever saw.

"It has been a long time Jack." She turned her head as she spoke, watching the entrance to the chamber, while a dark figure stepped into the light, Jack of Blades.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't the blind Seeress Theresa, to my own surprise. I must give you credit, you have surpassed all my own expectations. To think, you have outlived your pathetic whelp of a brother by so long. That's the beauty of it though, you mortals always seem to find new ways to impress me." A soft smile crossed Theresa.

"I should consider myself surprised as well, your lack of naivete is astounding for someone who has been... away for so long." Jack chuckled as he strolled across the chamber, approaching the old table at the side.

"Well, I must admit. I was lost at first, though lucky for me, my faithful follower was kind enough to leave me with all I needed to learn. Even more surprises occurred as I found out the fate of your beloved village and your brother's pathetic guild. As hard as you tried to keep them both safe, it all counted for nothing, quite amusing to say the least. But," he reached behind himself and brought out a book, slamming it hard on the table, Sparrow's biography, "I owe much gratitude to your newest favorite. Such a simple life, compared to others at least. And yet, he has set in motion my plans flawlessly. Leading me to find that so called hero of Strength, though not as strong as I thought, her blood shall serve well for Knight. My beloved Queen though... the past has taught me that normal Will users are useless in this world. But the book also mentioned a powerful guardian of this hero, and of course I find out it's you, fate is such a wondrous thing at times. But I'll assume you knew why I'm here already." Theresa just shook her head.

"You won't win Jack, your actions are only creating the path that will lead to an already predetermined destination of reality." Again Jack laughed at her.

"You are inclined to believe your own foolish visions, but the truth is what I will it to be." He approached her, retrieving the cutlass that hung on his back. "Fitting, you survive me all those years ago, only to benefit me in the future. Don't worry though, your blood will serve a greater purpose then it ever could in your veins, and you'll finally be returned to your mongrel family." Theresa held her arms out, as if accepting her fate. Jack placed one hand on her shoulder and thrust the blade into her chest. Jack's dark laugh filled the Guild chamber, it soon died as he realized his target had not. Theresa still stood there, her soft smile still lingering.

"Much has changed since you've been gone Jack." Without replying, Jack made one swift motion, removing the blade and catching a few drops of blood in a small vial. Then a strange sound and bright blue light filled the end of the chamber, on the Cullis Gate stood Sparrow, Reaver and Garth. Sparrow's eyes went wide with horror as he saw Jack, he soon noticed the wounded Theresa. The emotion in his eyes changed quickly to blind fury.

As he was about to charge forward, a firm hand gripped his shoulder. He turned to see Garth, his Will lines set as bright as they could.

"Strike swift and strong." Was all he said before Sparrow felt a spike of Will energies go through his body. Every muscle in his body seemed to become stronger. Without waiting to see the full effect of the spell, Sparrow jump forward to the masked fiend. While holding his sword high above his head, he swung it down hard as he came down on him. Jack quickly raised his cutlass to block the attack, but as the hero's blade struck, his own was shattered without resistance, cutting into the demon. Jack stumbled backward, and fell to his knees. The blade had made a large diagonal gash across the white mask.

The anger fueled hero charged again, but Jack was ready and jumped back.

"That's two injuries I owe you for hero. And you will pay dearly for it." A black void opened behind him and he stepped into it, vanishing. Sparrow stood there, his own heart pumping hard, as Garth's spell wore off. He turned to Theresa, her wound was already gone leaving only a small stain of blood over her robes.

"Theresa, are you alright?" She just nodded, while quickly resuming her usual demeanor. Reaver and Garth approached them, Reaver began clapping slowly.

"Bravo, excellent show. If that is the infamous Jack of Blades then we should have nothing to worry about. Especially if our boy Sparrow here can do so much so easily, just give me a shot at him and I'll have this mess sorted out in a jiffy." Garth just shook his head.

"Don't be a fool, that spell I had given him would have easily destroyed a normal man. Jack wasn't even at his full strength from the looks of it and it hardly phased him. This is bad, what could he be planning."

"He is going revive the rest of the Court." Theresa said, the three heroes all turned to her. "And he now has the means to do so."

"No..."Garth's voice was shaking.

"How powerful are they?" Sparrow asked. Garth gave him a look of disbelief.

"Essentially, even the first Archon himself wasn't strong enough, until he obtained the most powerful weapon in existence."

"So we need to find that weapon." Determination filling the hero's face. Garth merely frowned at him.

"Impossible, it was destroyed long ago." Despair had settled over the Will user, but Sparrow felt his anger flare again,

"Then what?" He shouted. "Are we to just sit here and wait until it's too late?"

"Calm down Sparrow," said Theresa, "our actions will be planned, but first..." She trailed off and looked towards the Cullis Gate. A blue light flashed and Hammer appeared, walking towards them.

"I see you two have returned." She said, eying the new heroes.

"And where have you been? Off getting drunk at some bar no doubt, while the real heroes face off against demons, their lackeys, and things of that sort." Reaver grinned devilishly at her, while Hammer gave an ice cold glare.

"For your information, I spent the last few days traveling to find out what Jack is doing. A lot more then you've been doing you pretentious pretty boy."

"Ignorant knuckle dragger." Reaver retorted.

"Enough." Theresa's voice was stern, causing the heroes to jump slightly, including Reaver. "Nothing will be accomplished if you continue your petty quarrels. There are far more important things at hand." A silence accompanied the others, still surprised from Theresa's change in tone. She turned to Hammer. "Hammer, did you find anything?" It took a moment for the monk to compose herself.

"Uh, yes, I found something odd. In a few of the villages I visited there were strange stories of people going missing. The strange part of it was that no one was kidnapped, they all seemed to just walk away then disappear without a trace."

"Followers..." Theresa said. "Before, when he came to power, Jack amassed a large group of loyal subjects. Others though, can be tricked or controled into working for him. You will need to be careful, he will begin to have eyes and ears everywhere."

"We've already met some of them," said Sparrow, "before we came here. The wore an odd attire, with strange a strange symbol on their faces." Theresa turned away from them for a moment, forming an infinite amount of plans and possibilities in her mind, she then turned her attention to the Will user.

"Garth, I believe you have an idea on a certain device of yours." He gave her a surprised look, no one else should have known about it, but he soon remembered it was Theresa.

"Well yes, I was just thinking about it." He looked to Sparrow. "I may have a weapon that we can use to aid us, we will just need to go to my tower to retrieve it." Sparrow nodded his head in acceptance, determined to do whatever he could to stop the masked madman.

"Good," Theresa began, "you two head for Brightwood, when you return, there will be more plans for the four of you." Reaver suddenly gained the attention of the others as he started to chuckle.

"You seem offly convinced that I amapart of this equation. I have no intentions on galloping off with some of my least favorite people, just to fight some deranged creature who can't understand his own limitations. Sparrow here can be the hero, I'd much rather sit back and watch the show." He was immediately surrounded with protests from both Garth and Hammer, while Sparrow just approached him, smirking to himself.

"Oh well, by all means Reaver, don't help. It will only show Jack that the dreaded King of Thieves known as Reaver is too frightened, he did after all attack you in your own home, and yet you want to do nothing about it..." Reaver's face showed obvious signs of considerations as he listened to Sparrow, being angered slightly as the hero pulled his 'strings'. "A shame though," he continued, "I could see the stories now. The great Reaver, defeating the infamous Jack of Blades in a single shot, something the Hero of Oakvale or the Archon himself could ever hope to accomplish. But if you want to hide away, then we wont hold it against you." Sparrow finished and looked at the pirate, who was having a conflict of interests.

"I, err.. well...ok fine!" He said, with the same anger he used after being 'convinced' to help against Lucien. "You have swayed me again in aiding you, but this time," he shot a glare to Theresa, "I expect something better then a second rate vacation as a reward." Sparrow just nodded, still showing his smirk. He then changed his gaze to Garth who was quickly hiding the signs of a smile that drifted into his features, he held out his arm.

"Shall we?" Garth answered by grabbing a hold of his arm. "All right, we'll be back as soon as we can." Then all it took was a swift motion to his belt and the two heroes were gone.


They both appeared at the top of Brightwood Tower. As usual, the surroundings were spectacular, the height of the tower showed off every aspect of the dense forest. Tall trees, clear waters, and the ruins of the Old Kingdom all added to the beauty.

After the two heroes took in the scenery, they walked out of the tower, Garth leading. Following the twists and turns of the outside pathways. Only a small distance away from the tower, they were standing at the edge of a small lake, at the center sat an island, on the island was a ruined tower.

"There?" Sparrow asked, a small hint of humor in his voice, his usual smirk started to show as the idea of the old magician swimming crossed him. Garth didn't answer, he knelt down and placed a hand on the wet bank. Immediately the water turned to ice and continued to grow until it reached the other side. A surprised noise escaped the hero, causing a smaller chuckle to escape Garth.

While crossing the icy bridge Sparrow saw a sight that caused him to bend over laughing, Garth looked out to see why and he noticed it as well. Protruding from the water was what looked like blackened wood, looking closer in the water showed more. It was of a larger piece, the full appearance looked like a large piece of a scorched bed frame. Upon seeing it, Garth immediately averted his gaze away from it, while Sparrow continued to laugh. He soon got over it and they entered the tower.

Not far from the front door was a single room, it was spacious but was home only to a single torch and vines. At the far end was a wide pedestal that sat a chest, the lid still hanging open.

"It would seem someone was here." Garth said eying Sparrow, who gave an apologetic look.

"Sorry, didn't know it was yours. Why keep it here, and wheres this weapon of yours?" Garth just sighed in disappointment while he approached the chest.

"I figured someone as smart as you would be able to figure it out." He dropped a few gold coins and a small red vial into the chest and re-closed it. "It's to distract thieves into thinking that's all that's here." Garth walked to the only other thing that broke the emptiness of the room, a doorway that was closed off with collapsed ruble and overgrown vines. He placed his hands on the side and focused his Will power. The air around them surged and swirled with power as the rocks began to shack violently. A large boom sounded as an invisible force pushed against the barrier, forcing the debris to the side and revealing an accessible path.

Garth motioned for Sparrow to enter, he followed inside and forced the debris back, blocking the entrance again. The doorway spiraled down to a larger room, different doorways lead to different halls, just standing there Sparrow could feel the structure was massive.

"As you could easily guess," began Garth as they walked the ancient halls, "the tower isn't nearly big enough for my experiments, but I found these chambers and soon made use of them. The perfect space and amount of seclusion I could ever need. Many breakthroughs have been here, but the unfinished ones were put on hold when Lucien came to me about the Spire. This is the first time I've returned in years." Sparrow stayed behind Garth, glancing at the different tools in each room they passed, some held alchemy supplies, while others were filled with old scrolls and journals. One room in particular sent chills into the hero, different shelves hung on the walls, each filled with jars that held parts of assorted creatures.

While Sparrow examined his surroundings he failed to notice the sudden stop of his guide. Without noticing, he walked past Garth, the ground shook and opened up underneath his feet. Falling forward, Sparrow saw a pit filled with spikes. His eyes shut tight, preparing for the impact when the falling stopped. A small pinch was felt on his forehead as he looked and saw his face hovering just before the tips of the spikes, one tip had barley pierced the skin. Garth had grabbed onto his coat, then he tossed him aside.

"What-what was that?" Sparrow said between deep breaths, his eyes as wide as they could go.

"Sorry, I put different traps all around the chambers, just in case someone made it down here. Don't worry, there shouldn't be any others between here and where we are going." Sparrow was hesitant to continued but knew he had no choice. They continued down the halls, Garth frequently commenting on specific objects they crossed. They reached to a older looking room, twice the size of the others, filled with large metal cages, different tubes and pipes were strung up on the ceiling.

"What experiments occurred here?" Sparrow asked, examining the different sizes and contents of each cage. A few stood out, the iron bars were bent open or sliced into pieces.

"Oh no," responded Garth, a slight shaking in his voice. Sparrow was about to question him when he was quickly answered, a vicious howl echoed throughout the stone halls. The howl was followed by the sound of padded feet hitting stone and bestial grunting. From the different branching halls jumped out a group of Balverines, but they weren't normal.

The Balverines were double the size as normal ones, their muscles bulged grotesquely, dark red veins glowed underneath their skin, and large crystalline spikes protruded from their backs and shoulders while their claws were replaced by the same material.

As soon as the beasts spotted the heroes they charged forward. One caught Sparrow in the chest and threw him against the nearest cage, two more lunged after him. Garth was fending off two others as well, the magical blades protecting him being easily shattered with each swipe of their hardened claws.

Sparrow rolled away from his attackers, grabbing his blade and swinging it down hard on one, cutting through it's arm and severing it. The limb twitched slightly and became lifeless, the Balverine howled in pain and from the wound the large crystals in it's shoulder grew and took the form of the missing flesh. His sword swung at a different one but the Balverine caught the blade in it's hand, Sparrow used his free hand and placed his pistol against the Balverines chest, firing repeatedly. The attack seemed to only make the creature angry, it's hand on his sword began to crackle with blue energy. The electricity trailed through it's hand and followed the blade to Sparrow, he was forced to let go as the pain was too much for him. The Balverine barked triumphantly and tossed the blade aside.

Garth was having better luck, one of the creatures left it's guard down for a moment, a single blast of ice took advantage of it. The other dodged away from a slash from an ethereal blade, the Balverine cleared the distance by diving for the Will user. Garth saw the attack and unsheathed the dagger he kept at his side, stabbing it in the heart as it came down on him. Using Force Push, he sent it's body flying at high speeds, crashing into one of the three focused on Sparrow. The Balverine on ice started to smoke slightly, it soon broke free from the ice by engulfing itself in flames. After it's freedom, the creature slashed the dagger from Garth's hand, threw him against the wall of the chamber and dove for the injured hero. Garth's hands glowed green, a small orb shot from the hands and hit the flying Balverine, causing it to slow down in mid-air. Garth then jumped out of it's path and pulled on the nearest torch bolted to the wall, a spiked pit opened where he was laying and the Balverine fell inside, he closed the pit and took a rest against the wall.

Sparrow, now defenseless, could do nothing to stop the swipe of the Balverine's crystallized hand. The sharp claws sank deep into his chest, the force of the attack sent the hero flying into the gaping hole of a nearby cage. The Balverine fiendishly licked the blood off it's claws before it tried swinging for him again, unable to reach through the bars. Sparrow saw a chance and grabbed a hold of it's flailing arms, pulling it forward and impaling it against the broken cage bars. The body of a different Balverine crashed into another one focused on the hero, he used the distraction to escape the cage and retrieve his sword. Sparrow ducked a new swipe from the next Balverine, using the position to swing his blade upward, slicing the monster in half. The remaining Balverine raised it's hand into the air, a large flame started and dispersed, creating a flash that blinded the hero. Sparrow felt a thud hit his chest and was pinned down by the Balverine, the creature opened it's mouth ready to bite into the hero. As it prepared to attack, Sparrow obtained his gun and fired it inside it's mouth. While the creature roared in pain, he pushed the Balverine up. Forming a flame spell, Sparrow grabbed onto the beast's neck and forced the fire into it's throat. He held it for a few moments and released his grip.

Dropping his weapons, Sparrow fell to his knees and slouched back against the nearest wall, bleeding out on the floor. Garth approached him, his own wounds somehow missing, giving a smirk to the injured hero.

"I'm impressed, those creatures are strong enough to destroy a small army single handed, to kill three shows excellent skill."

"Yeah thanks," said Sparrow, giving a weak laugh through heavy breaths, "though Garth, after this... is all over, we... really need to have a discussion about what you do with your free time." Garth's smirk vanished as he grunted in a response. He pulled one of the blue vials off of his belt and tossed it to him. Opening the vial caused a foul stench to leak out, Sparrow quickly forced it down. He soon regretted it as it felt like his chest was boiling his insides. During the pain though, the cuts in his chest glowed a bright blue, as the pain increased the cuts shrunk and healed until only small scars were left.

"There, you're better. Let's continue, we are almost there." A groan was his response as he got up and followed Garth. They reached an even larger room. The room appeared to be dug from an existing cave, with large bodies of water spread across different sections. Small rock paths were the only way across.

As they crossed the waters Sparrow had a nagging feeling strike the back of his mind, a sickening experience that felt like it was slowly draining him. His thoughts were soon broken as a large rumbling shook the chamber. From the corner of his eye, he noticed the rocks at the side of the wall moving, out of nowhere the rocks jumped to life. The rock troll charged forward at the heroes, catching them off guard. In the confusion Sparrow was struck by one of it's massive arms, throwing him across the chamber. Landing sharply against the rocky walls, he collapsed into the dark water.

Sparrow was soon swallowed into the depths, slipping in and out of consciousness. As his body sank to the floor, the uneasy feeling returned. The cold darkness swarmed his senses, as if the world itself had lost it's light. Despair was settling into his heart as his thoughts were being overwhelmed. Already at his breaking point and any longer he would be gone. Soon though, the mupheld cries of the troll and Garth filled his hearing and Sparrow was quickly snapped back to his senses.

Garth had already destroyed half of the troll's tendrils when Sparrow made it back to the dry path. Against two heroes the troll stood no chance and was finished off with little effort.

"What happened back there, are you alright?" Asked Garth, concern filling his voice.

"Nothing, just...just a little rattled. Let's just finish this, I've had enough of this place." They then continued down the path and exited the room. The final room was the smallest they encountered. Despite the size, the room was filled with different assortments of strange contraptions. Items Sparrow had never seen before were hung on the walls and ceiling, others sat on pedestals with glass coverings. In the far end of the room sat a small pedestal with an even smaller box laying on it. Garth opened the box, Sparrow peered over his shoulder to inspect the contents.

What looked like a small leather glove laid inside. Sparrow's eyes went wide.

"That's it?" He said, with a mix of irritation and surprise. "All that for a piece of clothing?" Garth just huffed a sigh of annoyance and tossed the glove to him.

"Go ahead, put it on." Upon further inspection, the glove had more detail then he had thought. The material was much more resistant then leather and warm to the touch, while it was decorated with different kinds of metal tools and a small disk sewn into the glove's palm. The glove slipped on easily enough, a strap at the bottom allowed him to tighten it. As soon as it was on though, the glove tightened even more and started burning his skin.

Sparrow didn't have time to panic as he felt a powerful surge of energy go from his hand and go through his entire body. The rush forced him to his knees, the Will lines across his body shined as bright as a star. He stood back on his feet as the feeling died down, though again he almost panicked when he saw his arm. His entire forearm had burst into flames, but he soon calmed down as he noticed the flames came from the palm of the glove.

"Wow." Was all he could say as he tried weaving his Will through the flames. Garth couldn't help but shake his head as the hero appeared like a child with a new toy.

"It's called a Will Gauntlet, powerful Will users long ago created them as ways to focus their power and store their experience. That one is of my own design, though it's not perfected yet, my own experience in fire was all I have been able to create. Your power will increase dramatically as you get used to it, maybe even enough to deal with Jack." Sparrow soon had more control over the flames and was able to extinguish his arm.

"Well, we have our weapon, let's get back to the Guild." Garth agreed and they soon vanished away back to the sanctuary, the strange feelings becoming the last thing on his mind. Though soon he would find out what those feelings truly meant...

A/N: Alright! Who else thought this would take another month... yeah...But yeah, this chapter was a lot nicer to work on seeing as how I wasn't as stressed out, as well as having more chances to actually work on it. Though damn, it became a lot longer then I thought it would be, figured the experiment chamber would be a lot shorter. Then I got the Balverine idea, and THAT lasted a good chunk.

But the idea of them having to fight escaped experiments of Garths seemed like a likely occurrence. Not sure what to call those freaky crystal creatures yet, though it's not that important. I doubt they'll ever come back, though you never know, all those years of Garth being away, something might have escaped...

Anyway, if anyone is having problems with the length of some of these chapters, just mention it. If it bothers enough I'll probably start breaking them down into smaller bits, seeing as how I could of easily chopped this into two parts. But as usual read and enjoy, reviews are appreciated and will always keep enthusiasm up.