Shadowforce

JOSH

Nope... basically I am not a traitor. So here's what happened from the start:

Rancour and Alice showed up first during the summer, I was out for groceries or something when I met them. Rancour claimed to be my long lost brother... but I did not have any clue as to what he was saying was true or not. You see I don't remember much about the past... the only things that I do remember are the times spent with Charlie and his family. I did not even know back then that Alice was Emma's sister. I had never met Alice before.

Rancour insisted that he was my brother... but I had a hard time believing it. I mean even IF we were brothers, Rancour looks a lot different than me. Both of them left, without much argument but right before they went they said... they would return soon.

And the person, who had abducted maddam, was none other than Rancour himself. I had thought at first that if was a coincidence that the abductor looked somewhat like Rancour, but... it wasn't. Next they attacked Emma. Rancour and Alice had deliberately sent Bloody Mary... just to hurt Emma. In fact Rancour himself had pinned Emma to the ceiling.

After returning to my room last night (The night I had met vulnerable Emma)I found a note on the table in my room. The note said,

'It's just the beginning dear brother.... something more awaits you dear friends."

Well, it was not that hard to guess... as to by whom the note was, but I decided to ignore that too. But I did make a mental note to beat Rancour to pulp next time I met him, for hurting Emma.

And again when we had reached Ethiopia and I had gone out in search of news and all I had again ran into Rancour, Alice and a group of thirty to forty not-so-friendly vipers. I simply warned them to stay away from my teammates and let me tell you this... It definitely did not end well.

"It's you destiny to be with us brother... it's not that I am fond of you but if you refuse to come with us come with us, we may be forced to kill everyone of your ' friends'. But if you DO come with us... their death may be delayed."

"What do you mean? You have done enough! If you even think about hurting my teammates... I swear I will..."

"You will swear what? Don't be foolish dear brother. How about as proof and a little warning I kill that leader of yours...What's her name again... Ahh... Emma, Isn't she your sister Alice? This should be interesting. Now as a warning to YOU..." And with that... those vipers attacked me which explains as to why I had returned all wounded to Octave. But before parting they did say,

"Be wise and step up when we ask for you, brother... We don't want to kill all your teammates, would be a great loss of us."

What they had said did come true... I did not see Emma after that. Because when I returned to Octave I became unconscious in the basement and when I gained consciousness I heard the news that Emma was dead. I still don't know as to how they managed to manipulate a Goddess... and not any Goddess... the Goddess of magic herself. Before entering the cave I had thought about what Alice and Rancour had said to me. And as I thought about it I became sure that they would not hesitate to kill my teammates off... and there was even a chance that they would kill Charlie.

Thus, when Rancour asked me step up I had to do so. Emma was already dead because of me...I did not want my only friend Charlie get hurt because of me. I am used to being the whole Badass guy back at SWA thus it was not hard for me to act like one back at the cave. Rancour was very pleased that I had listened to him. I even had let Charlie and Catherine escape... but unfortunately I could not help the others get away.

My plan previously was to act as if I was Rancour's brother, let everyone escape, steal all the Divine Globes, free maddam and get away... but that did not go as planned. Scott, Brittney, Drake and Lucy were captured and I had no clue where the Globes were.

As all the things were going downhill, I experienced incredible pain AGAIN which later let to discover my ability. It turned out that whatever I imagined came to be true. Then Rancour and Alice started saying about some 'master'. As if that was not enough... I heard Catherine's plan as she had unconsciously formed the link with me as well. I was worried that Rancour had heard it as well but thankfully that did not happen.

Meanwhile Rancour and Alice became super busy with the preparations of summoning their 'master' which I am quite sure was supposed to be a video chat. I even had an argument with Rancour just in front of Lucy's cell so she could hear our conversation and thus confirm their plan.

Not only that, I did not let Alice and Rancour see that Scott had broken his bonds I did not even let Alice bind Brittney in chains, again. What I mean to say is that I made Rancour see as if Scott was still bound and I made Alice think as if she had bound Brittney, in short I used my ability... which was surprisingly easy.

Maddam had somehow managed to get into my dreams, in those dreams she told me what to do, when to do and all that. It was only under her instructions that I created an illusion as if I was with Alice and Rancour while actually I was on my way to free maddam.

After madam's warning to look away... we all did look away since we knew that she never joked. As we looked back at the vipers that were once going to attack us, we saw nothing but dust. We looked at maddam in surprise; she was acting as if all things were absolutely normal. I wondered at first as to what had happened in the fraction of minutes but I did not have the guts to ask maddam.

I could not even try and look at the others in the eye... especially in the case of Charlie. Plus I was sure that they would not even believe me anymore. Maddam seemed to have noticed that when she said,

"Now, now... it seems you children have some misunderstanding among yourselves. Don't worry, Josh is not a traitor... in fact this was well planned among us. He is the same annoying kind as he was back at SWA."

Others then definitely felt more comfortable round me... But Charlie was still ignoring me, I was not even blaming him for that. Maddam continued,

"Now why don't you children go back to Octave, I will meet you outside soon, once I find the Divine Globes."

With that Maddam went further inside the Archfiend's Basement leaving us behind. As we were making our way back we (Of course!) came across Alice and Rancour. Rancour had a very creepy smile on his face... as he said,

"I see you betrayed us, Brother."

Then the fight started, Scott and Brittney who had just got their new powers were the first one to attack both of them, which took them by shock. Meanwhile... Charlie stood there in the corner concentrating as he made himself, Catherine and Drake invisible and soon all of them were fighting against Alice and Rancour together. I could even hear Catherine's voice in my mind as she commanded us how to fight and about what they were thinking.

But though the attacks of Drake, Catherine and Charlie did work... Brittney's and Scott's attack did no effect and Alice was constantly targeting the two of them as Rancour did a spell to protect Alice and himself from the attacks.

Then one idea came to me that if I could fly maybe... and lift Scott and Brittney ... the attacks then would have been a lot more affective. I still can't believe that it happened... as two fully grown, black wings...made up of flesh and bones and feathers grew on my back! And even before I could realize it... I was flying! I then lifted up Scott and Brittney somehow by imagination and the next thing I know the six of us were attacking Rancour and Alice and they were actually working! Since, we were out of their range. (There was no way we could have beaten both of them in hand to hand combat.)

Things were going fine, and we were all happy that we actually had a chance of winning! But then I saw that Alice and Rancour were joined by fifty vipers. But they couldn't attack us since we were either flying or invisible. But then we saw all the vipers moving towards Lucy! In all these pandemonium we had absolutely forgotten about Lucy!

We all watched in horror as the group of vipers pounced towards Lucy who was just standing there with both her eyes closed.