Yay! New chapter! I guess I should put this out there right now; this may or may not be the last chapter for at least a week. I'll be away Sunday - Saturday, so I will not be able to update the story ):
Forbidden-Angel25 - Thank you! I ship them hard too! They would just be so cute together, and that's why me and fellow writers created fan fiction (:
Twilight Woods - RIGHT! Idk why, but Walter never lets me pass him in the game, and he's so slow and annoying, but once Ben and Reaver enter the picture (I love Barry too, with his cute speech impediment ^_^) I just can't stop smiling and giggling like a little girl! Don't worry, your questions will be answered! ;)
BTW, you didn't think I'd leave Reaver out, did you?
The marshes were humid and uncomfortable; sweat was beading on Juliette's brow. She hoped they reached Bowerstone quickly. Ben, on the other hand, wasn't helping at all.
"You and I make a pretty good team, don't ya think?" He smiled.
She frowned at him. "For the last time, I told you I didn't need any help."
"Hey, you weren't the only one who didn't get knocked out. What did you expect me to do? Stand on the sidelines and watch like I was at the theatre?"
"It would've been a lot more convenient."
He didn't respond to that, but kept observing her as they continued to walk.
"What?" Juliette asked irritably. His very presence was starting to annoy her more than the swamp.
"Nothing." He replied. "You just look a lot different than from what I was expecting."
"I'm sorry I don't meet your expectations." How could she blame him though? In all pictures the people of Albion had seen of her, she had always worn elegant dresses, a face scrubbed clean of makeup and grime, and her hair braided down her back. Now, in her mercenary attire, with her hair down in thick curls and face painted with light makeup, many people would have never guessed her to be a princess. Not like she wanted to look like one.
"Honestly, I think it's a good look on you."
"Sweet Avo, just stop!" She yelled at him, her calm poseur completely destroyed. "You could make this damn trip a lot more enjoyable if you'd just quit with your worthless flirting! Ever since me and Walter arrived at the fort, you've been wasting your time trying to woo me!"
At first, Ben seemed surprised at her outburst, but then it switched over to humorous.
"Come on, princess!" He laughed. "I'm just being friend-"
He was cut off as he suddenly tripped, landing into the bog. Ben groaned and cursed to the gods, while Juliette, who'd been mad before, burst out laughing.
"What?" Ben argued. "You think this is funny?"
"Considering that I'm the one laughing now? Yes, it's absolutely hilarious!" She giggled.
"Could you at least help me up?"
She smirked, and continued down the path.
"Maybe since you're the one being laughed at, you'll probably leave me alone for the rest of the time."
Ben cursed again, squirming in the swamp's mud and getting dirtier before he finally stood up. He caught up with Juliette, and fortunately was silent until they reached the Mourningwood village.
"Okay, look." He said. "Since we both had the chance to be laughed at, could we start over? Be neutral?"
"Hmm." Juliette pondered. "Define 'neutral'."
"I won't act like a jackass, as you might say, and you won't be an angry bitch, as I would say." He explained.
Irritation sparked in her at his last statement, but she nodded. "Agreed."
As they approached the sewers, Ben held out his hand. "Hello, I'm Ben Finn." He greeted with a smile.
Juliette shook his in a handshake. "I'm Juliette."
About three hours passed as they made their way through the Bowerstone sewers. The first hour, the two didn't talk, but Juliette decided since they were starting over, it wasn't right to give Ben the silent treatment.
"So. . ." She started. "What were you before you were a soldier?"
Ben pondered, as if he was wondering whether or not to tell her, then chuckled. "Messed up."
"Tell me."
"You sure you want to know?"
"I have nothing better to do."
"Well. . ." He began. "For a while I ran my parent's shop, but then I left after it went bankrupt. I had to do a lot of jobs for awhile, but all of that ended up to be a waste when I, accidental or otherwise, joined with a band of smugglers and ended up in the capitol of all uncouth nature, Bloodstone. After a year or two though, I left that chapter of my life behind and met Major Swift, and he let me join the royal army."
To his surprise, Juliette laughed.
"What?" He asked her, confused.
"Come on, Ben." She said. "I talked with Grove and by the way he described it, there is way more than just that!"
He joined in her laughter. "He was right."
"Mind to expand on your life story?"
The last two hours of their journey were filled with laughter as Ben told her stories of his voyages during his years in the black market, his sexual conquests in Bloodstone, and his brothers' exploits.
"Unfortunately, their heyday is what ended their lives." Ben explained.
"How?" Juliette asked, quizzical.
"Well, my eldest, Jason, was killed in a duel with the husband of his last sexual conquest."
"Oh wow, I'm so sorry." She apologized with a look of sorrow on her face.
Ben burst out laughing, surprisingly. "What's there to be sorry for? He deserved it! Anyway, they fought with pitchforks, and Jason never worked an honest day in his life and held it the wrong way round."
He explained further about how his other brothers, William and Quentin, died. William ran a con game by the wrong person and was taken to Bowerstone, never heard of again. Quentin had gathered enough gambling debts to put a price on his head.
"I remember Quentin's death most clearly of all." Ben said. "I was unfortunate enough to witness it. When they came to get his suddenly valuable head, I tried to protect him, but I hadn't been able to afford a real weapon, and peashooters aren't the best weapons to use on a mercenary."
For a moment, a flash of pain seemed to cross Ben's face, a definite first, but then as quickly as it appeared, it faded away as Ben chuckled. "After that, my mother passed and left my father a drunken widower, though drunk only when he could afford it, poverty making his attempts to drown his sorrows all the harder. Well, enough about me. What kind of life did you have before all this revolution stuff?"
Juliette hesitated to tell him. She didn't really know how to explain things. "Not really much to tell. I've lived in that castle for eighteen years."
"Must have had a pretty relaxed life."
She giggled. "Actually, I think most of the visitors there dreaded it. We'd always mess around with the nobles, eavesdrop of meetings, and steal snacks from the kitchen."
"We?"
"Um. . ." She thought. "Me and Logan. And my best friend, Elliot."
"Wow, that doesn't sound like Logan at all."
"He's changed a lot. After he became king, his personality just became more stern. I think he developed insomnia. I don't know if all the duties of being a king just made him stressed, but after that he never seemed to have time for me or anyone else."
"So what did you do?"
Her eyes looked down at her feet. "I started to rely on Elliot. . ." She whispered. "While Logan attended to his duties, Elliot was just there for me. Walter was there too; he's been like a father to us both ever since our mother and father passed."
"Where's Elliot now?" Ben reluctantly asked.
A part of Juliette wanted to tell him the truth. Another part screamed at her to say he was fine, that he was still supporting her.
"I think he went to Bowerstone after me and Walter left the castle." She lied.
"You haven't talked to him for two months?"
"Not a word."
"Maybe you'll find him when we reach the city."
She sighed. "Maybe."
A bright light came from around the bend. The two turned and found the end of the sewers.
"Well, here we are!" Ben announced, stretching his arms. "Bowerstone Industrial, the poorest and dirtiest part of Albion."
As they began to walk the streets, Juliette realized why so many people were rebelling against Logan; beggars lined the streets, workers were coughing from the smog that hung in the air, and saddest of all, children ran past them into the factories that were all over Industrial.
"This is horrible. . ." She murmured.
A woman reached out to her, grasping her leg.
"Please!" She cried. "I need money to help my family!"
She hated to see the woman suffering so. Juliette reached into her bag and pulled out ten coins, placing them into the woman's hands, who smiled with tears rolling down her cheeks.
"Avo bless you!" The woman whispered.
As they walked farther, donating more money to beggars they saw, shouts and cheers could be heard.
"What's going on?" Ben asked.
In the courtyard of a factory, a riot was breaking out. A man stood on a pile of crates, addressing the crowd that surrounded him.
"Reaver is exploiting us!" He yelled. "We deserve fair pay for the work we do! We demand better working conditions! We're workers, not slaves! He treats us like animals, and we're not gonna take it! There's only one thing for it! We have to stand up to Rea-"
Suddenly, a gunshot rang out, and the man screamed in agony, falling on top of the crates. All of the riot members gasped in surprise and shock. Juliette flashed her head up to the factory's balcony, where a man in white and black suit and tall top hat stood, a smoking pistol in his gloved hand.
"But lying down is so much easier than standing up!" Reaver smiled, then addressed to the crowd, "My dear friends, in order to raise morale, I am offering prizes to the most deserving workers!"
Juliette began to reach for her own pistol strapped to her thigh, but Ben stopped her.
"Don't." He warned. "You'll just make it worse."
"The rules that will govern what I like to call 'The Reaver Team Spirit Award' are these: firstly, any worker that so much murmurs another complaint will be shot." He fired his pistol again at the collapsed man, who yelped with pain. As much as Juliette wanted to disregard Ben's warning and shoot at Reaver, she kept her hands wrapped around herself as she watched in anger.
"Secondly, any worker that takes more than a three second break will be shot!" The gun fired again, this time hitting the worker in the leg.
"Thirdly, any worker that breaks any other rules I have yet to formulate will," He chuckled, "Yes, you guessed it! Be shot!"
The pistol fired one last time, and worker's head suddenly exploded, making the crowd scream.
"You may return to work now." Reaver ordered. "As you know, I'm a generous man and likely to start handing out prizes right away. So go on! Shoo! Be off with you! Chop chop!"
The crowd receded back into the factory with dismal looks on their faces, as did Reaver. Once everyone left the courtyard, the two ran up to the man's body.
"We couldn't save him," Ben muttered, examining his bloody head.
"Avo, what's happened to this world?" Juliette asked.
Ben looked up at her. "You're brother becoming king, that's what."
They left the man's body, saying a silent prayer over his body. Soon, they arrived at a pub.
"Wally told me to leave you here for tonight." Ben told her. "I'm gonna start heading back to Mourningwood."
"You walked all this way just to walk all the way back?" She frowned.
"I've got to get the men ready to move out tomorrow, and make sure we leave some evidence behind so that Logan's soldiers think we're still there." He explained. "If I hurry, I can make it before sundown."
"If you say so."
"Wally, the others, and I should be here tomorrow afternoon or so."
"I guess I'll see you then. Good luck."
Ben waved goodbye and turned back to the Bowerstone Industrial streets, heading back the way they came.
Inside the pub, Juliette tried rent out a room on the top floor. The barkeep told her their rooms were getting full, and that to get an empty on, she'd have to pay extra. She groaned, searching her bag for extra money, then handed it to him. He fetched a key from the counter behind him and threw it at her.
"Upstairs, second door." He said in a gruffly voice.
"Thank you."
The room wasn't the best; a worn down bed, a dresser, and a table was furnished inside. The wallpaper was peeling, and the floorboards had a few splinters.
"Oh well," She sighed to herself. "Beggars can't be choosers."
She unpacked a few items from her bag when she noticed the copy of Ben's autobiography sitting on the very bottom. Juliette observed the papers, then placed them on the bed as she stuffed the bag into the dresser.
Once everything was put away and settled, Juliette sat on the uncomfortable bed with Absalom curled at her feet and began to read the paper's Grove gave her.
A few hours passed, and Juliette found Ben's life to be even more interesting in the story than it'd been when he told her himself. There were many stories written in the pages that Ben had refrained from telling her, such as experiences in the army, his hometown of Gunk, and the troubles he faced while working in the black market in Bloodstone. She decided it was fair, since she had also hesitated to tell him more on her own life as well. Soon, the words on the pages became uninteresting to her, and though her bed was lumpy, she found herself beginning to fall asleep.
A crash woke her up in the middle of the night. She peeked her head out to look down into the bar. Two drunkards were getting into a fight, the tough looking barkeep trying to break the two apart. They kept running into the chairs and tables, knocking over tankards and glasses. The excitement had spooked her, and even after the whole ordeal was over, she couldn't find herself falling back to sleep.
Juliette retrieved her mercenary jacket from the dresser, pulling it on as she headed downstairs into the bar. As she opened the doors out to Industrial, a cold wind blasted in, followed by the light trickle of raindrops. The little amount of water didn't bother her much as she stood along the side of the tavern, observing the candlelit streets, the ominous factories, and canals that wove underneath the bridges. The stars in the sky were mostly blocked out by the smog, but the ones that shone through were still as luminous. Honestly, Industrial was rather nice, if one could forget about the horrors that took place there.
She remembered nights when she and Elliot would sneak out into the castle gardens and watch the stars. Her father had shown her constellations, and their backstories. They seemed so mystical and far away. Everyone thought the castle gardens looked sinister at night, but she and Elliot found that they were just as mysterious as they stars hanging in the sky.
She was so deep in her thoughts that when someone's voice came from behind her, she jumped with a start.
"Hello there, Juliette."
She snapped her head back at the voice to find a man in white business suit and black top hat behind her, smiling.
"Reaver!" She gasped. "What are you doing here?"
He laughed, "You don't think I didn't notice you during the riot? It was hard to recognize you; you look a lot different than from when I last saw you. What day was that? Oh yes! The day those filthy peasants made a demonstration."
"Do not bring up that day!" She warned him.
"You're still in pain over that ordeal? One would think after two months you would've forgotten it."
"I'm not as cold-hearted as you, Reaver." She growled.
All of a sudden, the next thing she knew, his body was pressed against hers on the wall.
"Oh my dear, no need to be so cruel." He cooed. "I'm sure you'd find I'm not so cold-hearted as I may appear." His hands touched her waist and pinned her wrist down.
"Get off of me!"
Suddenly, a dog growled and Reaver gave a quick yelp. At his feet, Absalom was snarling up at his, a small piece of his white business suit in his mouth. Reaver took his eyes of her to see the culprit, giving Juliette enough time to snatch the pistol at her thigh and point it at his groin.
"I said, 'Get off of me'" She warned him, giving him daggers.
Reaver looked surprised at first, then smirked as he thankfully leaned away.
"Until we meet again, my princess." He called as he began to walk away.
As soon as he disappeared down the rainy street, Juliette leaned down and petted her faithful dog.
"Good boy!" She praised, taking the businessman's clothing piece and throwing it into the canals.
