PrisonDictator: Thank you! I apologize for the wait. I can assure you that I'm not going to leave this series unfinished.

Dice (guest): I'm glad to hear that!

ZackTheDemon (guest): See the prologue's author's note. And remember that I still have school and other stories to work on.

Act 1: The Overworld

Chapter one: Approaching the storm

The Fallen Realm, evening—two weeks after the events of Gone Rogue

Jack cracked his sweat-soaked neck as he stood across Andr, preparing himself for the imminent fight.

Andr, as always during training, didn't look too comfortable with the situation. With both hands, she held a wooden practice sword in a basic stance, keeping the blade in front of her. She hadn't used—or needed—many weapons before she started helping Jack with his combat lessons.

Jack took a basic stance, maintaining eye contact with the tall girl before him. "You ready?" he asked.

Andr silently nodded.

Then a purple flash of light brought her closer to Jack.

Jack was just about able to dodge the wooden sword that went for his head. He was fairly sure Andr was holding back again; there was a brief but significant delay between her teleportation and the actual strike that followed.

Jack swiftly moved in to retaliate, but the endergirl teleported away in time. Not searching for where she'd appear, Jack ran forward and swiftly climbed on top of a large rock. He turned his gaze to where he stood seconds before.

Andr looked back, wooden sword still in hand. She'd have hit him from behind, had he not run away. Now he had the high ground.

Not that that'd matter; she could still teleport and attack if she wanted. But training with her like this was mostly about developing a mind for tactics. Reflexes and such were still important, but secondary.

When Andr vanished again, Jack jumped off the rock. Just in time. Andr had appeared behind him again.

They continued sparring like that for a while, with Jack heavily relying on his reflexes to counter Andr's teleportation. Of course, had this been a real fight, he would've lost within a heartbeat.

Eventually, Andr caught Jack off-guard with a teleportation trick, after which she swept his feet from underneath him. His fall was partially broken by the soft grass.

Jack gave a nod as she helped him to his feet. "Come on," Jack said. "Let's do this without teleportation again."

"I thought," Cupa spoke up from next to a tree, "that it was Andr who trained you."

Jack blinked. "How long have you been standing there?"

"Just got here," the girl in green replied.

"Right," Jack said. Cupa was better at sneaking than anyone else in the Fallen Realm. "Anyway, to answer your question, I don't think I'd be able to beat Raulyn if I didn't learn how to take a non-teleporter down."

"Then why don't you train with Ari?"

Jack started at the mention of the spider girl. "I do train with her sometimes. But the main reason why I'm no match for her is because of how fast she is. I like to have my strength challenged from time to time too."

Besides, he thought to himself, Cassandra doesn't like it when Ari gives me martial arts lessons. The two sisters had been growing distant to each other already, and Jack didn't want that to become worse.

He felt a gentle hand on his shoulder. "The problems between her and Cassandra aren't your fault, Jack…" Andr softly said, as if reading his mind.

Jack fell silent. "We've had this talk already," he eventually said. "I don't want to hear it again." He turned to Andr. "Come on, let's fight."

Andr hesitated, then took her usual stance. The pity on her face made place for concentration. Good.

"Actually," Cupa intervened, "I came here to say that Mystia has made soup for everybody. You might want to get some before it gets cold."

"Why didn't you say so earlier…" Jack mumbled as he and Andr shed their stances.

"I meant to…Harry," Cupa said.

Andr visibly suppressed a chuckle. Jack glared. "Don't call me Harry," he said.

"What?" Cupa grinned. "That's your name, isn't it?"

Jack sighed and walked past her, ignoring her chuckles. He was starting to regret telling her that Jack was really his middle name. "If you're going to call me by my first name," he said, "at least say it correctly. It's Harrison. Harr-is-on. Not Harry."

Later that evening, Jack nervously looked to the entrance to his bedroom. The poor excuse for a door kept anyone from seeing inside the small hollowed-out chamber that was embedded in the Realm's wall. Even looking at the entrance from outside made Jack a little nervous. That recurring nightmare was just so vivid…

His attention was drawn by something in the corner of his eye. Athena—the somewhat dejected but kind-hearted master archer among the mobs—was approaching. She and Yaebi always only started walking outside when the sun was low enough, and for a good reason.

"Hey, Jack," Athena said.

Jack briefly raised his chin as a means of greeting.

Athena hesitated. "So, you still want to execute that plan of yours…?"

"You expect otherwise?"

"… No, not really," she admitted.

"I don't need the whole speech about your siblings, Athena," Jack said. "I've heard that one plenty of times already."

"I wasn't going to give it again. And I'll shut up about Herobrine, too."

"Thanks."

A brief silence.

"You've been practicing fighting a lot over the past two weeks," Athena said. "You've improved surprisingly quickly."

"I'm glad. Maybe now I stand a shadow of a chance against Raulyn. Even though Andr's always holding back during training."

"I don't think it's possible to beat Andr if she wasn't holding back. Besides, even though she never went all out, you've never actually beaten her."

"True. And I don't think I ever will." He paused. "I don't think I'll ever beat you or Ari, either."

Athena smiled. "You're not giving yourself enough credit. During our first sparring session, I was surprised at how good you already were. I mean, I knew you'd fought Raulyn and all, but I was amazed nonetheless. Ari said the same."

"You both still beat me. Easily."

"Yeah—we're mobs. We're cheaters; we rely on our powers to win, whether we can control them or not… Even experienced fighters like the Hunters have trouble taking us down without forming some sophisticated plan first." She paused, then quietly added, "No wonder the humans are scared of us."

Jack glanced at her, not knowing what to say. A brief silence fell, after which Athena looked up at him again, a smile on her face that seemed the slightest bit forced.

That meant it was very forced. She was almost as good at fooling others as she was at knowing when she was being fooled, and the fact that even Jack could tell at all that her smile was forced spoke volumes. The hostility between mobs and humans was a bit of a touchy subject at times.

"Well, anyway," she said. "You're a motivated student. And you've become even better really quickly these last two weeks."

"Thanks."

"No problem. Anyway, I'm going to take a walk. You're welcome to join me."

"Thanks again," Jack said, "but I'm going to have to refuse. Gotta turn in early today. Recurring nightmares tend to be tiring."

"Alright." Athena hesitated. "Hey Jack… About Cassandra…"

Jack sighed. "No," he said more forcefully than intended.

"Sorry," she quickly apologized. "I'm just concerned."

"Well, what would you have me do?

"Talk to her."

"I already talked to her; it did nothing. Not that I'm surprised…"

"Why?" Athena softly asked.

"Well, where do I begin?!" Jack said. "You shouldn't even trust me. For all you know, I've got loads of secrets like that—secrets that could get someone hurt." He raised his voice. "Cassandra seems to be the only one here who actually has the sense to understand that!"

Athena looked at him. She didn't even seem offended. There was no anger, no frustration, no cold glare. Just pity.

Why?! Why didn't she ever get angry?! Why did she have to be so calm, so patient all the time?

Jack turned away. "… Sorry," he reluctantly mumbled.

"It's fine," she said. "But you're wrong. I do have a reason to trust you; you defended my brother from Raulyn. That's enough for me. As for your past and the whole thing with Earth… You didn't know how we were going to react to that. We might've called you crazy. Or worse. I think Cass—and you—are the ones who can't understand that."

He shrugged. "Whatever. How about we continue this conversation at some later time? When I'm not this tired."

Athena gave a nod. "Okay. I'll see you tomorrow."

As she walked away, Jack saw something else in the corner of his eye. A dark figure, sporting a pair of red eyes. When Jack looked at it, it vanished.

He frowned. Like always, he found himself unable to recall what the figure exactly looked like. He did know that it had some sort of connection to his recurring dream. The figure—which he assumed was little more than a hallucination—had started appearing shortly after the nightmares began, and Jack was certain that that was no coincidence.

Good thing he got used to it. The nightmares, on the other hand, still scared him every time.

He eventually went to his room and fell asleep, despite knowing what his dreams were going to be about.

Even then, even when he knew he would get that nightmare, he did not know what was truly happening.