Laying in bed, staring up at the ceiling and letting the lyrics drift into his mind, Jory couldn't agree more with that. Though down at the moment, Jory was still at the top of his game and this battle and like the song said "Death will come when I'm good and ready"...he'd make sure of that. Bec was gone, and it hurt, but Jory commited himself to this battle, he commited himself to his army and the well being of humanity..he wasn't about to give that up over selfish reasons. Being able to rest in bed has allowed Jory to get much needed sleep, while everyone is downstairs doing whatever..Jory gets to slip off to dreamland, a place he has not visited in quite sometime, and dream away the night while his gift recharges in him. Before drifting to sleep and getting that extra energy he desperately needed, he forogt that his enemy, this phantom, could sneak into his dreams..but it was too late..its time to go to sleep.

***Face to face...***

It seemed that all he saw was blackness for a long time, and that his body was regaining what he had spent on traveling, but all good things must come to an end, especially in Jory's life, and before he could truely enjoy his sleep he found that the blackness was now gone and replaced by a scene of trees, freshly mowed grass, and the sun shining down on them as if the sun was close to setting. Looking around this area looked a lot like his grandma's backyard back in Colbert, Washington, which lies just north of Spokane. The two story blue home stood before him, with the trees that weren't taken down when the house was built surrounding him, and grass as far as the eye could see beneath his feet and roaming all over the backyard and towards the front of the house. This was the first time hes seen this place since he was about 15 or 16 and seeing it again brought back so many joyful memories..as well as sad and very painful memories. Because he hadn't set foot here in a while, the feeling inside him was as if this was just a distant memory of his life that was a thread away from non-existance, his mind never replayed any events of his life that happened here in dreams or anything, and because of his current life he just never thought about his past...it just didn't seem important to him anymore because of the pain that now dominates it.

But because those memories, though banished from his mind for so long, still had such an imprint on his life, he could already picture his grandma, sitting on the patio and watching him play with his uncles in the lawn while his step-grandpa bbq'ed hamburgers and his mom sat outside with them chatting and poking fun at his Uncle Mike who was enjoying a cigarette and laughing his face off with all the funny stories he had to tell. Those were some of the best times of his life, and everyday, even if he wasn't thinking about it, wished above all else that he could just go back to that innocent time of fun and live in it forever..but he couldn't, and it only made the pain worse. He slowly walked over to the patio where the lawn furniture and the outside table with the huge umbrella was still lingering and took a seat in one of the chairs, more specifically his favorite chair which had all the padding and made it a very comfortable place to sit. He didn't know how he made it back here, but it was all too good to be true to him, it was too real..this shouldn't be happening and he most definately shouldn't be sitting here in this chair..the house no longer belonged to his family thanks to his step-grandpa who drank the house away once his grandma passed away....stupid bastard.

His suspicions were laid to rest when out of the corner of his eye he saw the phantom appear around the corner and continue walking towards him. The phantom wasn't as evil looking like the last time he saw it, the robes weren't zipping everywhere from the fury of wind flapping them around and the phantom seemed to have a weird sense of calmness about it. Even though he couldn't see its face, he had the strangest feeling that it wasn't looking at him with anger..but instead saddness and sympathy for what hes had to go through. The phantom stood infront of him for a few moments after reaching him and, aftering taking him into its mind's eye, turned a little and allowed Jory to see the backyard again.

"Brings back a lot doesn't it?" The phantom asked, oddly enough the rasp was now gone.

"More then you could know." Jory answered.

"I can feel the pain in you, it must hurt to have all of this come back to you so fast."

"You could say that."

"You and I are both weak from battles Jory Johnson, please let us only chat for now? As much as I'd ike to rid myself of you..you know the old saying "Keep your friends close, keep your enemies closer."

"I suppose, even if I was at the top of my game I wouldn't have the push needed to face you."

"Thank you." The phantom then took a seat beside Jory and looked out into the backyard with him.

"I never thought I'd see this again, sometimes I couldn't even get my own memory to give me this image..it just wore out with time." He said with deep regret in his voice.

"Sometime our memories will fade with time when we dont use them enough, we must make room for others you know."

"There aren't too many memories I want to keep or have in my life, seems all my life is is a big dump of regret and pain."

"No one said life would be easy Jory Johnson, only that you could live it to the best of your abilities."

He turned to her with a look of confusion and spoke. "Why do you care? All you want is me dead and world domination."

"It's more complicated then that." She sighed "I never used to be..well...this."

"What did you used to be then?" He asked, wanting to find out a little more about this "enemy" of his.

"I'm afraid we will have to save that for a different time and conversation Jory Johnson, I'm not one to open up easily."

"Uh huh, I see..."

"I will say though that your quite the amazing creature Jory Johnson, you've withstood all that I've thrown at you and yet still have more courage in you to sit here in a memory that gives you the most pain and chat with me..I respect that."

"I'm not one to fold easily."

He said with a smirk on his face.

"Neither am I Jory Johnson, you'll prove to be a worthy opponent afterall."

"Right back at ya."

"I'm glad your confident Jory Johnson, but do know that I am not Zeddicus and I am not Earl Beardie, I'm far worse."

He turned his smirk into a serious frown and said in a whisper "Yes....I know".

"You know, this really is a beautiful place."

"Yea, it is..."

The phantom studied him for a moment, pondering why it suddenly feels this connection to him. "As enjoyable as it is, I must go."

"Yea..me too."

"If you want more answers Jory Johnson, I suggest you meet me here."

"Uh..we already are here." He said in a sarcastic manner.

"You know what I mean Jory Johnson. If you want answers, you'll see me here..in Colbert,Washington..you'll find what your looking for."

Before he could inquire what it meant by that, the phantom faded away infront of his eyes, leaving him alone once again in this haunted memory. He debated whether or not he would acually go back to the acual real thing, this was but a memory of a time long ago..what would the real thing look like? He was afraid to find out.

***Back in the kitchen***

The sun was beginning to rise in New York and the group had taken shifts in sleeping to ensure everyone's safety, especially Jory's. Throughout the night, Kerri had felt weird vibrations coming from Jory's room and despressed feelings suddenly waking her up at night, but she thought it was only apart of the recharging system and thought nothing of it, but Zedd and Anita were able to feel it also and were a little more unsure then Kerri was. Scotty had gotten up before everyone else and decided to make some breakfast for everyone, he figured they would all need a meal after last night and cooked up some eggs, bacon, sausage, and french toast to calm the rumble in their stomachs. Kerri in shortly after Scotty had finished, followed by Zedd & Anita and sat down at the table while Scotty got everything in order.

"I dont think I've had such a bad night in my entire life...and thats a long life." Zedd joked.

"I hear that, Jory's energy was off the roof last night, was hard to sleep." Anita said, almost angerly.

"Just give the guy a break, he lost his girl and lost a lot of energy just getting us here in the first place..I'm sure he....." Before Scotty could finish Jory suddenly appeared in the entryway of the kitchen. Everyone turned to him and were a bit shocked to see him fully decked out in his gear and full of so much energy.

"Um, whats this all about?" Anita asked curiously.

"When your done eating, pack up and get ready to go..were heading to Spokane."

"Other then it being your hometown, what reason do we have to go?" Jory turned to Zedd and stared at the man who brought him into this mess, the man who helped teach him what he knows now.

"......The phantom....its there...."

TBC