Chapter Three: Spargus Prince
It's finally here! Sorry this is taking so long. Marauder Child will also be a little bit of a wait. I'm going through a serious writer's block here, so give me a break! Here's chapter three. Oh, and by the way, I've changed Jak's age around to fit my stories. In this series, he was twenty-five in They, Themselves, and I, then in We, Ourselves, and Us three years passed and he was twenty-eight. Then three more years passed and he became thirty. In the Cell of Hell, he's fifteen to begin with, because there's going to be a little OC pairing (OC being me!). Wrong, I know, but get used to it. They're my stories...
And so ended the journey of Peace the Precursor...
Meanwhile, back on Earth, Jak sailed through the desert heat with the Freedom Fighter train that he had convince Torn to let him borrow. "Damn it," he muttered as he lost himself once again on the locater by his side. "I'm getting too old for this..."
True, Jak was only thirty, but he couldn't stand the fact that he was only getting older. Michael's already five years old. And it won't be long until Jordan is right there with him... He shook his head and tried to focus on his current mission, but the thoughts kept coming back to him. Soon, Jordan will be going to school, dating, getting married... "Snap out of it Jak!" he yelled at himself. "You've got years before that happens! Right now, the other Jordan's need your help!" Shit, there's too many of them already...
His eyes locked in front of him, he continued to look back and forth from the locater. "This is getting me no-wait! What's that?" All of a sudden, another dot appeared on the screen below him. Without hesitation, he landed the train on the ground and stepped out, Morph Gun in hand. "Strange, I could've sworn that I saw-"
"JAK!" An unfamiliar face ran to him, arms wide open. The scary part was, he was a man... "Jak! I'm so glad to see you!" Instead of hugging him, like Jak thought he would, the man set his hands firmly on his shoulders, staring him straight in the eyes. "Um, I'm sorry, I don't think I know you..."
"Oh, but you do! I'm Peace! Peace the Precursor!"
"PEACE? What happened?"
"Faith. That's what happened."
"What about him?"
"I wanted to let Jordan and Jordan go, but he wouldn't let me. So I fought, and I lost my powers..."
"Jordan? What's wrong!"
"She's been cursed by Faith! She and her soon to be husband left the Oasis Garden, totally against Faith's words, so he cursed them for life, and I'm afraid that there's more in store for them both..."
"Like what?"
"Much, much more my friend. I've seen this done before. If a mortal has gone against the Precursor laws once, they are cursed with the image of a demon and the Black Heart, a jewel that keeps them from speaking to the Precursors. But if the laws are broken twice, the Precursors will send many plagues and curses to get them. I sense that they are in for one in only a matter of time."
"We have to go get them!" Jak grabbed Peace by the fore arm and led him to the train...
"Are you okay?" The couple had been walking for almost two hours, and the sun STILL wasn't up. "Yeah, I'm just a little tired," she replied weakly, wiping sweat off her brow, Jordan sat down on the ground. "Funny, I thought deserts were supposed to be extremely cold at night..."
"Something's not right," her fionce said coldly. "The sun should have been up by now..."
"Don't worry about it. It must be one of those late days..." He helped her up to her feet and held her close, refusing to let her sit down again, for fear she would fall asleep. "We have to get something to eat. And drink."
"Spargus?"
"No, we have to find some sort of oasis. What do you think would happen if they saw us like this?"
"We could tell a lie."
"Huh?"
"Yeah! You know, they're not big on smarts there! It's whoever has the biggest gun is tougher, not much politics. If we told them it was Halloween..."
"If we told them it was what?" he asked, letting go of her quickly. "Halloween! Haven't you heard of it?" He shook his head no, assuming it was a thing only done in her world. "It's this holiday honoring the dead. Every year during the month of October, kids would go out and make costumes, scary or silly, and go around 'trick-or-treating,' a thing where you beg for sweets at people's doors."
"Sounds like fun! Well, it would be if we weren't eighteen..."
"Oh, you could still do it if you were older! I've even seen adults go out there and help their kids, like my dad used to..." She hung her head in memory of the good old days. "Your dad helped you?"
"Yeah, he would always tell the people that we were about to go in for a serious opperation in Vanderbilt Hospital and that we needed junk to eat until they could fish enough food out of the garbage cans for us when we came back to our little cardboard box that we lived in..." Jordan laughed and put his arm back around her. "He sounds like a nice man..."
"Yeah, he would be about...forty-four now. My mom would be forty-six. Karson would be six. Hayden would be thirteen. And Talon would be fifteen."
"Whoah, who are the last three?"
"My younger brothers. Heh, I would always get on to them for fighting all the time, Hayden and Talon. Karson was the good one...when he was one..." She wiped her eyes and eliminated the droplets that were forming at the edges of her eyes. Again, they hugged and kept walking...
"Tibbany!" At the call of her name, Tiffany instantly ran for the baby's bedroom. Being only two years old, it was only natural for him to wake up before ten on a Saturday. "Tibbany! I wanna' story!"
"Jordan! I thought something was wrong!"
"Der is! I'm BORED!"
"Oh, alright. But straight to sleep afterwards!"
"Tell a long one!" he cried, refusing to give up the battle of staying awake. Tiffany sighed and sat on the chair next to his bed. "Okay, where do I begin? Oh, I've got it. Once upon a time there were two little girls..."
"What were their names?" he asked, wanting every detail so that he wouldn't miss out on any good information. He's too smart for his age, thought Tiffany. "This is a story about me and an aunt that you've never met before."
"What's her name?"
"Jordan," she said proudly. The baby gasped. "That's MY name!"
"Uh-huh. Jordi there helped save the world once! But I'll tell that story some other time. Tonight, I'm going to tell you about our other world."
"Dere's more?"
"Much more, Jordan! You see, when me and Jordan were thirteen years old. We lived in a magical land called Tennessee."
"Tensee? Where's dat?"
"It's a different world, you don't have to worry about that. Well, Jordan and I weren't elves there. We had short ears and wore funny looking clothes..." She stopped and stood from her chair and left the room. When she returned, she was carrying a large box. Jordan jumped from the bed and ran to her side. He opened the box and threw the lid across the room like any normal child would do. Inside were the funny looking clothes. "Dose are silly!" he squealed, picking up a pair of shoes that were tied together with strings. "Yep, check this out..." She reached inside and removed a beautiful and shining necklace. "Jordan got this from a boy that lived in another place called Texas."
"Tesas? Is that anoder world?"
"No, it's located in the United States, where Tennessee is." The little boy scratched his head with confusion. "I thought you said dat Tensee was in anoder world!"
"It is, it's in a place called the United States."
"Ohhhh! So what did you and Jordi do in duh Unit Stays?" Tiffany laughed softly to herself at his bad grammer. "We went to school, went on walks around the city-"
"Dat sounds BORING!"
"But there was much more! Once, Jordan and I had a slumber party, and she fell down some stairs!"
"Haha! She was as silly as her cwoves!"
"Yes she was! One day, she decided to get a croca-doggy when we came here. She turned around and it got hit by a cruiser!"
"Ah!" he screamed. But his expression quickly changed from fear to delight. "Mikey used to do dat!" Tiffany thought back to her's and Jordan's fight with Mike's toy cruisers. She glanced over at the clock to discover that it was already nine in the morning. "Can I please go back to sleep?"
"No!" He laughed out loud, waking her husband a few doors over. Blake slowly crept into the room rubbing his eyes. "Somebody needs to teach this kid the rules of Saturdays..."
"Jordan? Jordan! Wake up!" He shook her gently as she once again fell limp in his arms. "No really, I'm fine..."
"No, you're not. We have to find... Ah hah!" Jordan pointed over the hill to a group of palm trees. "An oasis! Hurry, we haven't much time." Instead of waiting patiently for her to regain her strength, he scooped the skinny girl into his arms and ran. "Look, Jordan! Water!" Slowly, ever so slowly, she opened her eyes. "What happened?"
"You tell me." Climbing out of his arms, she cupped her hands and scooped up some delicious water. Her man did the same. "So, what next?" she asked after she had finished. He took one last drink before answering. "I think we should go to Haven. Spargus citizens would shoot us if they saw us now."
"You're right. Maybe Jak would know what to do."
"Ugh...what will the HAVEN citizens think?"
"Does it matter? They don't have weapons, remember?"
"No, but the Freedom League does!"
"Oh, that's right, let's think of something. Now, there is absolutely NO way that we can get around the guards, right? Wrong. If we somehow contact Jak and get him to come and get us, we can get right pass."
"And once he does, we'll have to remain inside the palace...or prison."
"Jordan! Your own father would NEVER do that!"
"And how do you know? How will we convince him that we're...us?"
"He has to believe us. He always did. Now, to contact him..." She scanned the area around her, but it was still too dark to see. "This isn't right. The sun should be up. I'm sure of it." Jordan tried scratching his head like he always did when he was puzzled, but failed due to the horns. The laws of the Precursors flashed through his head. "Ah! I get it now!"
"Get what?"
"Why it's so dark! You see, we disobeyed the Precursors, and I'm sure you know the laws. Once, a cursed image. Twice, plagues and unfortunate happenings. This must be a plague. Eternal darkness!"
"Shit! Now what? We need some sort of goggles or something to see!"
"I can't contact the Precursor, this gem on our chests keeps us from getting in contact...Wait! They never said that we couldn't contact HALF Precursors!"
"And that Precursor hybrid is...Jak?"
"Yep...Hmph, he might not be able to hear us now..."
"Why?"
"I'm too weak. I think we should rest for the night...day...well, whatever it is..." Agreeing with a nod of her head, Jordan gently lay down next to him. He wrapped his arm around her waist and they both fell asleep within minutes...
This can't be happening!
She watched a young girl fall limp on the ground in front of her. Her friends were on the ground as well.
Get up!
One of the girl's friends, a young boy, snatched her up and began to trudge through the rain towards the city gates.
Who is that girl? And that boy?
Jordan looked down at her own hands. They were translucent, making her seem like a ghost.
Where am I?
Looking up from her body, she watched the boy stumble through the gates, a tiny squirrel on his back.
That's me and Tiffany! But what's going on?
Without hesitation, she ran in the rain with ease and into Spargus.
"Please don't be dead!" the boy yelled above the roaring down pour that battered the covering of the city.
This must be the day that I...died. So Jordan was the one that tried to save me...
Another one of her friends, Sig, scooped her into his arms and ran down the streets.
Run, Sig. Run!
They reached the hospital shortly, wasting no time in putting her into the stretcher.
Now what?
The rescue trio rushed inside after the nurses carried the girl away, leaving the older Jordan to wait outside. She didn't even bother to open the doors. Jordan had done this before, and she knew what she was doing.
"Jak! I'm so glad you're here! It's Jordan, she just collapsed in the rain, and she wouldn't wake up! Her skin was white and her lips were totally blue!"
What's wrong with me?
"I'm sorry, Jordan passed away..."
I'm...dead?
Jordan ran through her crying friend and the doctor and straight into the emergency room. There, she found a couple of crying nurses, and a limp fifteen year-old. Jordan lay her hand gently upon her, even though her hand seeped through.
If I hadn't been so foolish when I was thirteen, I would have been with my mother and father, with my whole family! But instead, I came here. Oh, if only I could go back...
"Oh, if only I could go back!" she said in her sleep. She jolted awake breathing heavily. Once she had decided that it was only a dream, she lay back down next to her boyfriend and fell into a light sleep for the rest of the day...
Wow, this chapter was a lot longer than I had expected. Keep the reviews coming and I'll continue to write!
