Notes: Same as before. Don't own Pendragon; if I did, I wouldn't be writing on FanFiction, that's for sure. More than anything, I just wanna say keep reviewing. I just hope I'm entertaining you, at least a little! And, of course, sorry for the spoilers if there are any, but, I daresay, they're rather unavoidable.

C.V. Spike,

Pendragon, Journal #1 (continued)

(a.k.a. Traveling Travelers)

The cab ride was fairly silent- Spader was busy being amazed by the sights of Second Earth, which were probably all the more awesome, since not all too long ago he'd seen what this territory used to look like. It was pretty obvious he would've loved to speak his excitement, but, wisely, he chose not to explode into such conversation with the cab driver in earshot. Something about not being familiar with a territory could make you ask a lot of strange questions that unnerved normal people. Imagine that.

Anyhow, on the ride there, I was flipping through the stuff in the envelope. There was money in there, two airline boarding passes, and two fake IDs. Man, I've gotta give the acolytes some major, major credit. They had gotten really intense with this. And I was so, so not used to things working this way. I almost felt like I was being led along- I mean, couldn't Saint Dane easily be behind this? For some reason, though, I felt that that wasn't so- this was a multiple person effort. Despite Saint Dane's many unusual powers, he still can't be more than one person (or at least, if he can, he's been saving that trick for an opportunistic time like… this). Spader brought me back to reality by exclaiming, "My name's Thomas!" Which, you know, isn't weird at all. The cab driver grunted, and I felt a tinge of worry.

"That's great, kid. My name's Frank."

Spader laughed, scratching his head in embarrassment. (Did I mention how long his hair had gotten? It was like he was growing a mane. And he could actually pull the look off, too!) He mouthed the words 'sorry, mate', to me, but I just shook my head in response, trying to hide a small smile. This all just seemed surreal. It was like I was a normal kid again, hanging out with a friend, going on an adventure. And then I was brought back to the reality that, while this certainly was some sort of adventure, the goal of said venture was to stop an immortal demon from destroying the universe as we know it. No pressure or anything like that.

Oh. And I'm sorry for not mentioning it to you before, guys, but I really would've liked to come see you before I had to leave for Chicago. I kind of feel now like I was ditching you two or something, but that's really not true. I would've loved to have visited you. The problem was, if I'd have done that, we would've missed our flight. But if you think I intend to spend this entire journey on Second Earth without getting back to Stony Brook to see you… well. I don't see it happening.

But, back to the story. We arrived at the airport, which, as you would expect for such a busy city, was, well… busy. We paid the cabbie with some of the cash we had from the acolytes, and entered the building.

The amount of people was stifling. Then I remembered something.

"The pepperspray," I whispered to Spader. "You've got to get rid of it."

"Why?" Spader asked, incredulous. "We might run into more of those nasty wogglies- shouldn't we stay prepared?"

I shook my head. I couldn't be angry at him, 'cause he didn't have a clue- airport security wasn't really a factor on Cloral. "They'll go nutso on you. Just get rid of it."

Spader didn't seem to entirely trust me on that at first, but he managed to inconspicuously toss the little black spraycan into a garbage can. I almost felt like saying, goodbye, savior! to the little thing (after all, it had saved our lives from a fangy doom not too long ago). But hey. Gotta do what ya gotta do. I have to say, though, I didn't like not having any method of defense other than my own body at my disposal. I figured I could dish out a nasty beating if I needed to, but, while I definitely wouldn't call Spader a weakling, I don't really think he'd be too effective at hand-to-hand combat.

After a moment, though, I realized that weaponry wouldn't matter much at this point if Saint Dane knew where we were and really wanted to get us. Since, you know, we were going to be sitting ducks in a giant, metal, possibly-deathtrap. Talk about a reality check. It took all my faith in the fact that this time we were the ones playing the typical 'Saint Dane only' cards, that we were the ones with the uncertain identities, to get us through that security line.

"I don't get why I have to take my shoes off," Spader mumbled, though it wasn't a discontented sort of mumbled, rather, it was tinged with curiosity. "Do they inspect your feet, or something? Because that's just weird."

"You'll see," I said, taking off my shoes and putting them in a gray bin to be sent through the security machine. I walked through the metal detector, and, without commotion, my boarding pass and ID were checked and I was off to put my shoes back on. Spader followed after me. I half-expected to hear the loud whir and see the flashing lights on the metal detector go off, just so our plans could be hindered, just so they could detain Spader, realize he wasn't who he said he was, and, and… Guh. See what this life does to me? I'm getting to be totally paranoid.

Spader was through without a sound. Boarding pass checked, and he retrieved his jacket and shoes.

"I still don't get it, mate. They didn't even look at my feet," Spader said, obviously confused. I smiled. Spader's got a way of doing that- totally getting rid of the pressure in a situation, I mean. He just says the most hilarious things, and he doesn't mean to be funny. Though, honestly, putting myself in his situation, I guess I would wonder the exact same things.

"They don't look at your feet or anything. They just want to make sure you aren't hiding weapons or anything in your shoes," I told him.

"Oh," he responded. "Well. I guess that makes sense, then. So what now? We need to get to a Gate B-16?"

We looked around. The place was massive, and packed, too. And everyone seemed to know where they were going. Guess what? We had no clue. I looked up, to see a sign with arrows pointing every which way.

"I think we go to the left," I said, and set off into the crowd. Spader bounded after me, and we made our way through the commotion, finally arriving at our destination- Gate B-16. So, everything had gone pretty well so far. We were here. We'd gotten away from the quig-dogs, we'd gotten here, we'd gotten through security, and we'd arrived at the right gate. It almost seemed unnatural.

"Now boarding Flight 314, Gate B-16, Seating Groups 1-3," a voice announced over a loudspeaker. I glanced at our boarding passes- group 2. That was us.

I looked at Spader. He'd never done anything like this before- nothing near it, really. The only airplane he'd ever really even seen was Jinx's plane, back on First Earth, which was nothing like the commercial airliner we were about to board.

"Ready?" I asked him. He looked at me. I saw him gulp, and then smile waveringly.

"Hobey ho, let's go."

xXxXxXx

The plane we went on was a small, cramped little thing. I claimed the window seat, planning on leaning against it, and taking a nap- it was gonna be a long flight, after all, somewhere between 2 and 3 hours. Which isn't too long, but, still a while to expect me to sit still and do nothing.

As the seats were three in a row on either side of the aisle, Spader got to sit next to someone else. Being the kind of guy he is, he immediately struck up a conversation with the other passenger. The dude's just not shy at all. How he managed to keep talking for around an hour I couldn't say, but he seemed to find the right words, despite the fact that I knew there were some 'Second Earth' things that he probably had no clue about. I bet he could've gotten a discussion going on throughout the whole plane if he hadn't gotten dizzy after a while.

"My ear's are all weird," he complained. "Is that supposed to happen?"

"Yup," I replied. I reached into the seat above me, pulling out the gnarly headphones within and plugging them into the little outlet on the arm of my seat. Spader did likewise, following my example. He seemed to know what to do from then on without my help- I imagined they had something similar to CD Players on Cloral. I knew they had some sort of music system, because I remembered that funky techno/Japanese-style music I'd always hear back there.

Then all the lights went out in the plane. Someone stood up- a flight attendant, it looked like. But, within moments, I sure knew who it was- a formerly 'average Joe' look melted into… you guessed it… Saint Dane, everyone's favorite demon Traveler. I knew all at once that this must've been a hoax. Saint Dane had obviously planned all this, and now he was going to sink this iron bird somehow, and, of course, he wouldn't die, because he never seemed to die, but we would. Talk about unfair. And another few hundred people would be going with us. Guilt trip, much?

"Thought it would be that easy, Pendragon?" Saint Dane spat, walking over towards me. Everyone else seemed petrified. Spader's eyes were defiant, and I was just angry. Well. Angry and scared, I'll admit it. Saint Dane barely seemed to notice Spader- his eyes were directly on me. In his hand was a long wooden pole, like the ones they had on Zadaa. I didn't get it- where had that come from? As far as I knew he couldn't just keep weapons on his true self while hiding under the guise of someone else that lacked said weapon… Regardless, he had it now. He walked over to me, smiling.

"Remember when I offered you your chance, Pendragon? You could've accepted. You could've avoided all of this, and so much more. Now, you're going down, and this whole plane of innocent people is going to go with you," he murmured, icy eyes burning my own.

"It's not happening," I responded, though I had no clue how I could stop it from happening. He was in the aisle- I was at the window seat. A bit of a disadvantage, especially with the cramped conditions. I'd have to unbuckle my seatbelt, jump onto my seat, and dive over Spader and the person sitting by him. It wasn't likely I'd get that far when Saint Dane had a weapon and I didn't.

"We'll just see about that," Saint Dane hissed. "But I have another offer. Spader... You could come with me. You don't have to die. I offer you the chance to join me. We shall bring all of Halla together, as it should be, and we shall be heroes…"

"Never," Spader spat, before Saint Dane had even finished speaking. In an instant, Vo had unhooked his seatbelt, and made as though to pounce upon Saint Dane.

What followed was horrible.

The most sickening sound I'd ever heard, in my entire life. Saint Dane had whirled the stave, swinging it with all his power… and it had connected, right with Spader's skull. Spader's lifeless body was sent crashing back, until it was lying next to me, his head actually on my shoulder. There was an obvious indent in his forehead where the pole had connected, and his nose was already dripping blood… His eyes didn't move. I could barely move. The rest of the passengers stared on, mouths wide.

"See what happens to those who defy me, Pendragon?" he asked, poking at my arm with the long stave. Poking at me, over and over again… and I couldn't speak, I could only look at Spader, Spader, dead Spader…

"Mate? Uh, wake up, won't you? We're here…" I heard a whispering. "C'mon!"

I shot up in my seat. "Spader?" I asked, looking at him. Alive and well. No indents on his forehead, eyes full of life.

"Well, yeah, mate. Sorry I'm not Loor, if that's what you were wishing," he chuckled. "Plane touched down. Everyone's getting off."

I breathed a major sigh of relief. I just wanted to hug the guy. Seconds ago, I'd thought he was dead. You really don't know how grateful you are for someone until you think you might've lost them.

"No, no, I'm glad you're here, Spader," I replied. "And, alright. Thanks for waking me up."

"Glad you're glad I'm here. I'd sure wonder why you bothered fetching me if ya didn't want me!" he grinned, and we headed off the plane. O'Hare wasn't half as crowded as our departure airport. We didn't have any bags to pick up, so we just walked outside, and hailed a cab. I pulled out the letter previous to the one I included in my last journal. I guess I could've included it, but it was really just details more than a letter at all. Anyhow, it had the address for an apartment that had been arranged on it, so I told the cabbie to go there. It was dark now, and Spader seemed even more amazed at the glowing city that was Chicago.

"Looks awesome," he said. I bet he could've said more than that if he could have figured out where to start.

We arrived at our apartment about forty-five minutes later. It, on the other hand, did not look so awesome.

"Well, maybe it'll have a good view?" Spader mused, trying to be optimistic.

"Maybe," I replied, and we stepped inside, eager to see our new headquarters

ReviewReviewReview! You gotta tell me what you think. I'll keep writing. You keep reviewing. I only got 1 review for chapter one as I write this… I'm sure not a whole lot of people read Pendragon fanfiction, but, uh… :'D If you hit it, please review it!