"Petra, just let him go," Jesse said, a bit worriedly, "he's not worth it."

"Sorry, Jesse," Petra apologized, "but I didn't escape one monster just to let another one get away."

Ivor's eyes flickered again. Jesse squinted. Yes, they were definitely a bit shiny.

Jesse sighed, drew her own sword, and flicked it, knocking Ivor to the ground. She really was getting better.

Ivor arched his eyebrow. "You really have improved since I last saw you," he murmured, clambering to his feet, "but still- I'm the only one who can stop the Witherstorm. Not you, not the Order!"

He raised the sword, golden blade flashing in the low lighting, "Don't make yourselves the villains in my story."

He charged at Jesse, who flicked her sword into the air, blocking the swing Ivor had utilized, the two blades locked together for a moment, before Ivor shoved Jesse back to the floor. Jesse was up on her feet in less than a second.

Ivor raised his sword above his head, and Jesse slammed the flat of her blade into his ribs, making Ivor stumble back, and then she lashed out with her foot, knocking Ivor to the floor.

"You're not going anywhere," and Petra came up behind him.

Ivor got to his feet, turning to face the two of them. "This could have all been avoided," he snarled, "if you want to stop me, you're gonna have to catch me first." And he yanked out a potion, swallowing the whole thing in one go.

"Look out!" Petra brought her sword down on Ivor, but he was gone, as if he'd never even been there. They looked around, Petra quickly running to block the bookshelves. "You're not getting out of here that easy, Ivor."

Ivor began to blur around the room, so fast that you could only see the after-effects.

Jesse let out a cry as she winced, another headache striking her head.


"This is a Potion of Speed," Ivor held the bottle up.

Jesse practically crawled into his lap, staring at the sparkling bottle. "It's pretty!" she cooed.

"Do you want to see what it does?" And he smiled slightly at her.

Jesse sat back on her heels, clapping her hands excitedly. "That'd be fun!"

Ivor uncorked the bottle and drank some of it, before getting up and then blurring around the room, running around so fast that everyone couldn't get a good look at him.

Jesse clapped as he finally slowed to a stop, right back in front of her again. "That's so cool!" she beamed like a sunbeam.


"Jesse!"

Jesse shook herself out of it, seeing Ivor running right at her, sword held out to his side.

Jesse threw herself backwards, her hands catching her in a sort of 'crab' position, the sword literally brushing against her nose, before Ivor ran right for Petra and knocked her to the floor.

"Petra!"

Petra climbed to her feet, blocking each hit that Ivor tried to attack her with. Her forehead was covered in a layer of sweat, and her skin was a pale shade of gray, and her eyes were turning even grayer than before. Her motions were getting more sluggish with each block, but she refused to get out of the way.

Jesse slammed her shoulder right into Ivor's side, making him cry out in shock and pain as he collided to the floor.

Another headache stabbed into her temples, making Jesse gasp in pain.


"I hit him!" Jesse crowed and danced around in a little circle victoriously, before beaming at her friends. "I got him!"

Ivor grinned, wincing where Jesse's stick had collided with his side in a moment of distraction and sent him to the floor. She was actually getting pretty good at it. Not that he'd... ever admit it, of course.

"Nice job, Jesse," he praised, before poking her in the ribs with his stick. "Got you," he smirked at the little six-year-old girl.

Jesse turned to look at him, eyes wide and mouth open in a little 'o', her own short black hair tousled from moving around so much. "Aw, no fair!" she whined, before running back over to him and poking him again with the stick.

Five minutes later the sticks had abandoned and the practice fight had deteriorated into a poking session.


"Don't tempt your fate," Ivor was hissing, and then running straight at Jesse.

Jesse brought her sword up, down, flicking it using mostly just her wrist, finally succeeding and knocking Ivor back onto the floor again. He really hadn't gotten any better since the last time they'd fought...

"It didn't have to go this way, Jesse. You could've just let me go," Ivor said, his eyes softening slightly.

Jesse frowned, puzzled.

And then he smashed a bottle at his feet. "Now you see me, now you-" He was gone.

Crap.

Jesse looked around for her invisible enemy, but he was nowhere in sight. Laughter that wasn't hers or the redhead's filled the air. "Stay on guard!" Jesse told the redhead, who nodded and lifted up her sword again.

Jesse searched the area, finally spotting a potion bottle floating in midair. She reached out with one of her lower arms and caught the potion, looking at it in surprise before she was forced to chuck it aside and dive out of the way of another one.

"End of the road, Ivor!" Petra growled, "we're not letting you get away with this!"

Silence.

"This one's on you, you puffed up fool!" And the potion went straight at Petra.

"No!" Jesse reacted instinctively, jumping in front of her friends, lower arms spreading out to protect her friend. Her upper ones shot string, which tagged the bottle and sent it spinning right back at Ivor just as the potion wore off.

He gave a startled cry and fell onto his back, groaning as he managed to get to his feet. "There's no time... no time... this could've been avoided."

"Jesse! Petra!" Lukas raced into the room, Axel hot on his heels and Olivia bleeping into sight. Ivor snarled.

"Even more of you?"

"We found Ivor," Jesse said, which was kind of stating the obvious. "We stopped him."

Petra gave Jesse a grateful look. "Jesse did, anyway."

"False," making all six of them look at him, "you've stopped nothing." He walked towards them, casually. "A query... ever seen the effects of a Splash Potion of Slowness?"

Jesse's eyes widened. "Ivor-"

He smashed another potion at the group's feet, and Jesse's voice slowed. "- dooooonnnn'tttt."

He walked away, everyone's eyes narrowing in rage as they realized what he'd done, Jesse turning far too slowly to do anything as yet another memory flashed into her head as she ran towards him.


"Ivor!"

The black-haired male looked at the little girl as she ran up to him, grinning widely. "I thought you said you wouldn't have enough time to visit after defeating the dragon! Where's everyone else?" she asked, brightly.

Ivor's dark blue eyes seemed to fill with pain, and he glanced away. "Oh... e-elsewhere. Listen, Jesse..."

"Mmhm?" Jesse beamed up at the Order of the Stone member, putting her lower arms behind her back and waiting.

"I don't... think I can... visit, anymore."

Jesse's smile faded. "What...?"

"I can't... I'm sorry," Ivor apologized to the little girl, whose entire body was drooping as she stared at him in disbelief.

"B-but you never come," she said, green and red eyes beginning to tear up, "you never spend time with me! Are you mad at me?"

"I'm sorry," Ivor repeated. "No, no I'm not angry at you, I just- I just needed to come and say bye."

"But- but you can't leave, why- Ivor!" Jesse looked as though she were about to start crying. The six-year old really didn't understand why he had to leave. "Ivor!"

Ivor turned away. "I'm sorry," he repeated again.

"Don't leave!" And she ran towards him, a pleading look on her face.

Ivor spun around at the last second and smashed a bottle at her feet, and suddenly Jesse couldn't move. Well, that wasn't accurate- she could move, but slowly, slow enough that it wasn't good enough to do anything.

Ivor looked at her with an apologetic look, before turning around and leaving.

The potion wore off a whole minute later, and Jesse was left standing there, staring forlornly after one of the few people outside of her friends who she'd trusted.

Everyone left.

And sometimes they never came back.

A/N: I- I- wow. Wow, that- that last part actually made me tear up a little bit at the end. Although that might just be the result of me sitting and watching the screen for too long of a period of time. Not sure. Poor kid Jesse.

Flashbacks galore! You can tell Jesse really adored Ivor as a kid. Wonder why.

And... still bugging out. (sigh)

x.X. A.L. X.x.