Chapter 1

"Niku!" Someone was shouting. "Niku! Where are you?"

Niku recognized the voice immediately. He'd know it anywhere. After all, he'd been in love with its owner for a long time. Except she didn't know it. For all his bravery in battle he could never summon the courage to tell her how he really felt.

Not like it matters anymore, he thought to himself. Not since the Rook showed up.

He felt that old, familiar hate boil through him. He despised the Rooks for murdering his father, Cyrus, and torturing his mother, Gwen. They stripped him of enough already and now one took even more from him.

He stole Keiara.

"Niku!" he heard her shout again.

"Keiara! What do you want? Have you finally lost interest in your damned Rook?" he sneered.

There was no answer.

"Why play these games?" he asked, after a couple seconds. He looked around but still couldn't find her. "Why taunt me? Why continue to torture me?"

"I have a secret," Keiara whispered from directly behind him. "I've known how you felt about me the whole time. I just wanted to watch you squirm and twist. I wanted you to think you had a chance with me. I wanted to watch your love grow so I could crush you like a bug. And let me tell you. It was worth the effort. The look on your face when I chose a Rook over you was absolutely priceless."

Niku was shocked silent at her words but more than that, he was shocked at the callous, vicious way she said them. It wasn't like her. She didn't have an ounce of meanness in her. She was kind and sweet. She wouldn't say those things. She wasn't capable of it.

He turned around slowly and found no one there at all. In fact, he realized nothing was anywhere. The world around him was an empty, white void.

"Where am I?" he screamed. He was starting to panic now.

"Where you are meant to be," Keiara said. She suddenly materialized in front of him, as beautiful and perfect as ever. "Where you will stay. Forever."

Keiara suddenly changed into Rone. The smug Rook smiled cockily at him.

"This is where you belong. You're uselessness won't get in the way anymore. All you do is screw things up," he said.

Niku's fury rose to incredible new heights. His vision blurred. His heart thumped painfully. His hands clenched into white-knuckled fists. With an incoherent growl, he charged blindly at Rone. Before he could get to him, however, the Rook dissipated into thin air and Niku stumbled and fell onto the ground. He got up slowly and looked for Rone but he was alone again.

"Coward!" Niku screamed loudly. His face went bright red and he could feel his blood pounding through him.

"Always so easy to manipulate. Your anger will forever be your downfall." Now both Rone and Keiara were back and they said the words together, their voices in perfect synchronicity.

Then they started laughing. They laughed and laughed, their voices contorting and merging until they had only one voice. Then Rone and Keiara melted into each other. There was a hideous few minutes where they looked like some kind of two headed monstrosity. Then their features smoothed over until Niku was looking at the burned man. The man that lead the Rooks.

The man that did...something to him but he couldn't remember what.

"What do you want from me?" Niku asked, afraid. The man scared him badly.

"What I want is to take. To corrupt. To pollute. To contaminate. This world and every other now that I have been freed. Believe me when I say this boy, I will never stop." He suddenly blurred and then he was inches away from Niku's face. "I cannot be stopped."

The burned man changed again and this time Niku's fear was so powerful that he could barely breathe. The man's twisted, burned face split open and the tear continued on until the two halves of his former body fell to the ground in a slimy pile. What crawled out of the husk was a thing that looked like a spider but a twisted, deformed version of one.

And it was much, much bigger.

"My power is at its apex and no force on this world or any other can stop me now that I have you," it said.

Its voice was like knives that flayed the inside of Niku's head. He clamped his hands to his ears and fell to his knees as the pain quickly became unbearable.

"You will die here, halfling. There is no escape, One of Both Worlds," it said.

"No! No. I. Will. Not." Niku yelled out his rage with each word and as he did the pain receded. As his pain went away, something new filled its place. It was a rush of pure power. It whirled inside him and made his head feel slightly dizzy. He'd felt that kind of power once before when he faced off against the company of Rooks alone on the desert battlefields.

Then his eyes flashed with bright green light the color of a field of spring grass. They fixed on the spider-thing and then he threw out his left arm. His hand was clenched into a fist and it looked like he just punched the air. He didn't know what was supposed to happen when he did that. Something inside him, some instinct he never had before, was guiding him. It was like an unknown force had taken control of his actions.

At the same time he flung out his arm, the power rushing inside him flew out in a pulsing wave of green light. The air suddenly smelled like freshly turned earth and wild flowers.

As soon as the power left him, Niku felt a wave of exhaustion. He staggered to one side for a second before he fought against the sudden fatigue. He used what remained of his strength and managed to stay on his feet. He wasn't going to drop his guard. He wasn't going to be vulnerable. Not again. And there was no way he was letting that creature get him. He wasn't letting it escape either. He was going to destroy it.

The spider-thing didn't even try to move. It just laughed with crazy glee.

"Futile. All your efforts are futile," it said as the light hit it.

Then its body swelled and bulged grossly.

Niku watched in horrified fascination as the revolting thing exploded in a blast of stench and putrid slime. The force of it smacked into him next and sent him flying a few feet through the air. He hit what passed for the ground in that weird place a minute later but all it did was shatter like glass. He kept going, passing from that white void and into the sky of a devastated, ruined world.

He shouted in complete terror as he tumbled end over end through a brown and yellowed sky. Streaks of purple blackness raced over and through the land below and whole chunks of the earth were just gone. Tendrils of darkness covered two thirds of this world and they were hungrily trying to devour the rest.

Niku's screams rose the closer he got to hitting the ground. He closed his eyes before he did. He couldn't stop his fall but he could stop himself from seeing his own death. A second later, he smashed into the peak of an enormous mountain that looked like half of it had been sheared away. Rocks and pebbles flew into the air when he hit it and he created a crater about two feet deep.

He coughed harshly as dust flew down his throat. His eyes watered and his chest burned. He took a few seconds to get himself together. He was amazed that he was still alive but he was extremely shaky. His body was trembling from the fear of certain death.

He managed to flop onto his back. He waited a few more minutes, just sitting there and taking steadying breaths. Finally, he pushed himself to his feet. His legs were wobbly but they stopped a few seconds later.

He looked around the half destroyed mountain he was on and finally got a chance to take in this new place he was in. It was a ravaged wreck but he knew instantly that it was some sort of mirror world of Purga, only the real Purga was beautiful and vibrant. The Purga he was in now was a pale comparison. It was dry and wasted. Chunks of earth were just missing and tendrils of purple laced darkness invaded it like a plague.

"Now where am I?" he asked out loud.

[The world between worlds.]

He wasn't expecting an answer so when he got one, he was startled. He turned around and directly in front of him was two massive creatures.

One was a dragon. The other a roc.

[And time is running out. You must fight back.] Both creatures seemed to be talking at the same time. Neither ones' mouth moved, however. Instead, their words filled Niku's mind like thoughts.

"I don't understand," Niku said. "What is going on here?"

[There is a war,] the Dragon said.

[And we are losing,] the Roc said next.

"A war? Against the Rooks? You don't have to worry about that. We can handle them." Niku brushed the matter aside.

[Humanity's flaws will be their undoing,] the Dragon noted. [Ignorance. Greed. Pride. Bigotry. Racism. These are the things Blak has used to gain his foothold in their minds.]

[It is a sad thing to witness,] the Roc agreed.

"Hey! Why don't you two quit acting like I'm invisible!" Niku shouted, annoyed. "Now why am I really here?"

[To protect your mind,] they said. [Your body is in the physical world under Blak's control. We pulled your mind into this one to keep the demon's infection from spreading. You are the third, Niku, son of Cyrus and Gwendolyn D'Avignon Varlamagne. You are meant to protect. To preserve. To serve as a Sentinel to this world we have built for humanity. Fight. Fight as hard as you can. The other two will fight to bring you back as well and together, the three of you can defeat him.]

"Gwendolyn D'Avignon Varlamagne?" Niku asked. His hands clenched into fists and his body went completely rigid. "Varlamagne? Never associate me with that cursed name again. My mother is Gwen of Vitari. She is not a Rook. Do you understand?"

[It is you that does not understand,] the Roc shot back. There was a flash of anger from its eyes and they sparked with white-blue light. [You are the One Born of Both Worlds. You are both Rook and Terraquois. Fate has brought you into being for this moment. Do not let your idiocy and petty hatreds cloud your judgment.]

"You're lying," Niku replied quietly. Then he looked up and his eyes locked onto the Dragon's. "Liar!"

The Dragon let out an earsplitting roar as the Roc screeched painfully. Both of them were clearly angry. The Dragon's eyes glowed red hot as flames danced off its scales. The Roc's eyes were bright with blue light and arcs of lightning were sparking off its body.

[Your world is in peril and still you refuse to see it,] the Roc yelled, angry and infuriated. [Blak will destroy everything. He will consume everything. And here you are enveloping yourself in your stubborn refusal to accept a simple truth.]

Niku couldn't think. The creatures' words were too much to handle. He was lost in a confusing cloud of emotions.

It couldn't be true. I can't be one of them. They...they are killers. And that Rook. Rone. He's...he's...my brother? Can't be.

"No!" Niku shouted. "I can't accept that."

[You don't have to like it but you must accept it. You have been fighting this truth, this part of yourself, for so long. I know you've always suspected. I know you've felt your differences with others in your tribe. Embrace them now. Give in to the truth,] the Dragon explained, its voice considerably calmer. Its bright, red and gold eyes stared fixatedly at him, making Niku quickly uncomfortable.

Niku turned away from the pair.

"I can't," he said. "Not after what they did."