FLIGHT

"Come on buddy, we're not out of this yet."

- Han Solo, "Star Wars: A New Hope"

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When the hero triumphs during the SUPREME ORDEAL, two main outcomes are possible.  Through his defeat of the various TESTS and THRESHOLD GUARDIANS the Hero may have won the favor of the Powers.  Then they may have given him or her the ELIXIR freely, in fact given him or her their blessing to return the ELIXIR to the world and and heal it.   In this case, the final stage of the adventure and the return to the ORDINARY WORLD is supported by all the Powers.  If on the other hand, (and as is most often the case) the ELIXIR has been stolen, the Powers are angry.  They will send everything they have at the Hero, for they have been slighted and cheated and nothing less than the hero's destruction can quench their wrath.   This is FLIGHT.  When the Hero has to escape back to the ORDINARY WORLD.  The journey will include another THRESHOLD CROSSING and if you thought the first one was bad, the THRESHOLD GUARDIANS here will be nothing to scoff at.  While before they were trying to keep the hero from entering the special world, now they will be trying to do anything to stop the hero from getting back.  The stakes are high!  Capture means failure and proverbial (and sometimes literal) death.

Some good examples of this are in "Star Wars: A New Hope", Luke and company escape from the Death Star but before they get back to the rebel base on Yavin, they are chased by a flight of Tie-Fighters.  In "The Matrix", Neo must confront the Agent in the train station in order to escape.