A/N: Not much to say, other than to prepare for some more OCs. Don't worry though; the dominant cast will thin out soon enough.
Disclaimer: I don't own Tales, but I did come up with the storyline and the world used.
Ch.3: An Old Friend
The effect of running into the strange man in the black suit was still hanging over the traveling heroes. Anise had only recently stopped rambling about how weird the man acted, and the nonsense he spouted. Natalia didn't say much on the subject, but it was obvious that she too was questioning the stranger's sanity. Jade and Tear took to it silently, the prior figuring it would be best to ask someone more familiar with this area, while Tear brushed it aside.
"How much further until we're there?" Anise groaned. The sun was on its way down, turning a fire orange as it approached the horizon. Jade searched the bag their former hosts gave them and removed a map.
"We should get there soon," Jade looked to strange rock formation that was marked on the map, "seems whoever made this likes using landmarks for reference." He handed the map to Natalia when she motioned to see it.
"Wow," The princess examined the map, "this is very well made, there's so much detail on the terrain." The map showed a detailed picture of the continent they were on, including a line that separated the "Settled Zone", from the one not yet settled. The continent itself resembled strange looking dragon towards the east and molded into a polygonal mess towards the west, "Helixia, must be the name of this country."
"Yes and no," Jade corrected. Everyone stopped to look at him in confusion. However, in Jade like fashion, he nominated a certain someone to explain, "Guy, you do the honors, I'm suddenly feeling tired."
Guy gave him a disapproving look, "I wasn't there when the general explained it; you should be the one to do the explaining."
Jade shrugged, "I told you what I knew, so why not spread the knowledge?"
Guy opened his mouth to protest, but Tear cut him off, "Just explain Guy, you know Jade won't back down."
The blonde swordsman grumbled before responding, "Alright, this is the simplest version…"
xxx
It all started in the country east of here, Drakia I believe. There was a group of landowners and religious separatists that wanted to go to a newly discovered land to the west, here.
General Steinberg threw the dead gunman off his lance and turned to observe the battlefield. His forces were dwindling slowly, but for every one that died, they took ten DUN soldiers with them. He watched helplessly as two Helixian soldiers were gunned down after dispelling an entire regiment. Feeling a prick in his neck, he turned and spun his lance, the pole end splitting the charging soldier's head open. As the half-dead DUN dropped to the ground, the general threw the lance. The weapon split the air and drove itself into the knee of an enemy Hoplite, jamming its movement.
From what the general told Jade, sometime between the settling and about two years ago, the king of Drakia began to oppress the people here. He over taxed them for meaningless items and wrongfully denied them a voice in his courts. Eventually, the nobleman here decided to write a petition, in an attempt to respectfully advise the king to stop his actions.
"How the mighty fall, Lion of the North," Colonel Dickson appeared from a cloud of smoke, rifle in hand. The rifle was equipped with a long bayonet, golden vines decorating it. His long, grey colored trench coat flapped in the wind, a smirk of hate placed on his face, "I'm disappointed."
The Lion of the North, Steinberg, turned and drew his sword, a Xephos (1), and pointed it as Dickson, "I have not fallen yet DUN Dog, I swore to my brothers that I would slay the King's Bane, and I shall do just that!" He charged the calm rifleman, weaving between his sights.
(1) Xephos- Single-edged blade used by the Greeks, most notably the Spartans
Dickson bit back a curse and fired, not believing his eyes at what happened next. The bullet seemed to slow down as Steinberg split it in two, the halves shooting off into the backs of two unsuspecting DUN soldiers. The Colonel leapt backwards when Steinberg took a swipe at him, managing to leave a cut in Dickson's coat, "You'll pay for that you rebellious swine."
"Come at my blade you lowly dog and taste my steel." The General began to glow golden as he reared back, a low roar coming from his chest and through his throat, "RAAAH!"
After two petitions, the king pressed harder, further oppressing the people and even sending military regiments to keep the people from rebelling. Eventually, however, the nobleman snapped and decided physical action needed to be taken. It wasn't anything violent, only protests and a refusal to purchase overtaxed items. This didn't do much more than anger the king, which ended with him pressing even harder.
General Steinberg's form disappeared and reappeared behind Dickson, standing tall and proud. His title was proven to be accurate, as the Colonel yelled out in agony, a gash in his chest spewing crimson blood. Dickson fell to his knees as his torso began moving from his lower half. He had been cut in two, his heart and brain still functioning as if nothing was wrong, "Y-You'll burn in hell for d-denying his Excellency!" Dickson croaked. Those were his last words, as blood flooded from his mouth as he fell to the ground and died.
After another year, the settlers had enough. By this time, they had settled numerous towns, each with a fully functioning trade route. On top of that, unknown to Drakia, the settlers had stored up and refined weapons in preparations for a revolt. With an act of war, the settlers declared their independence from the DUN Empire, Drakia, and deemed themselves Helixians.
General Steinberg threw off his helmet and coughed roughly. His body was too old to pull off such abilities, and he paid for even attempting, "Ah, the mortality of man will forever be an equalizer," His eyes moved to Dickson's corpse, "that is why I can no longer bow to a king, no man can take the place of God."
"General," Cain ran over to him, an injured Kai running beside him, "the ground forces are retreating sir, they're going to finish us with the cannons!"
Kai spat a mixture of blood and dirt onto the ground and glared into the sky, "What are your orders sir? We only have one-hundred men and women left!" Kai looked at his commanding officer, a fire burning in his eyes.
General Steinberg looked around, feeling the expectant gaze of his remaining forces. He saw the fire burning in all of their gazes, feeling the determination to win, or die trying. He smirked and turned to the ascending King's Bane, "We attack the King's Bane, have all remaining Hoplites open fire on it while we set off the trap." He turned back to his forces and raised his sword, "Together we fly, to win this fight, OR DIE!"
"Let freedom ring," Cain chuckled and gave the damaged Hoplites a hand sign. The steel machines raised their rifles and aimed carefully, "FIRE AT WILL!" A shallow volley of rifle fire hit the King's Bane, barely piercing the thick armor. Cain snorted as everyone spread out, some to activate the traps and others to prepare for the counterstrike, "AIM FOR THE VENTS, THE VENTS!"
Now, they're fighting a war for their independence, a war to separate from the DUN Empire. This continent is full of useful resources, so they won't let it go so easily. The general even mentioned them using their best forces to try and take this land back. However, another country to the east is helping them out, but this war is still at a dead-lock and leaning towards DUN.
Explosions rocked the trenches as explosives planted in the canyon wall went off, sending rocks plummeting for the low-flying sky-ship. The King's Bane, between having its heat vents and weapon docks being fired upon, and the large boulders slamming into it, started to face major damage. Smoke poured out from various injuries, reverting the mobile fortress to a floating pile of metal. However, the King's Bane would not bow so easily, using the cannons at its side to spray the land below with cannon fire.
Explosions peppered the remaining Helixian resistance, leaving only a handful left to stand. General Steinberg, Cain, Kai, and a few others stood proudly, though they were heavily injured. Cain blocked out the blinding pain coming from his blown off arm and glared at the demon in the sky, glowing sapphire as he concentrated. As one, the remaining soldiers jumped an inhuman height, some sort of magic propelling them.
The cannons soon reloaded and fired yet again, this time blowing the Hoplites and their pilots to nothing but a smoking pile of twisted metal. However, the riflemen stationed at the sky-ship's opening focused their fire at the approaching warriors. General Steinberg resisted the urge to assist his men as they were shot down, leaving only Cain, Kai and himself, "RAAH!" He drove his blade into the ship and spoke a hastened chant as he dragged the blade across the wing. A massive wave of energy severed the wing, blocking his sight of Cain and Kai. However, he knew they were already dead, but not without heavily damaging the other wing.
Inside the control room, the captain was frantically ordering his men to stabilize the teetering King's Bane, the machine whining as it strained to stay in the sky. The captain and crew all turned to the window when they heard a thump, only to see one General Steinberg preparing to break the glass, "Shoot him, someone shoot HIM!" The captain scrambled for a gun, but the weapon fell and slid back towards the smoking hallways of the injured ship. Biting back a curse, he watched Steinberg break the glass with a powered swipe of his word, another energy wave shooting through the ship.
xxx
"…that's about all of it." Guy shrugged. Everyone jumped when a thunderous bang echoed in the distance, a column of smoke shooting into the air. They all looked at the smoke with concern, recognizing the location to be where they had come from.
"You don't think that's… where the encampment was do you?" Natalia asked. She already knew that it certainly was.
"More than likely," Jade callously turned towards their destination, "come on, we still have a little bit to go." He started back on route, though the rest of the group hesitated.
Tear gave one last glance before following Jade, a familiar voice ringing in her head. It said something about going back to help, how just leaving them wasn't right. At first, she assumed it was Cipher, but she then realized that it was her conscious. Normally, it would be silenced with a bit of logic, but now it had taken on the voice of a particular red-haired swordsman, 'When I find Luke, we're going to have a long talk about his behavior.'
"Isn't there something we can do?" Natalia questioned.
Guy placed his hand on her shoulder and shook his head solemnly, "I don't think the general would like that, he sent us off intending for us to miss the conflict; it would go against his honor as a warrior."
"Correct," Jade turned back to face them, "but if you really want to see if they're alright, we can always send Mieu to check it out." Everyone gave him a look of confusion until he reached into the sack once again. They all gasped, especially Tear, when Jade showed them a familiar, snoozing Cheagle.
"MIEU!"
The little creature slowly opened its big eyes and looked around drowsily, "W-Where am I?" His eyes grew to an unheard of size as Jade dropped him. With a small thud, Mieu hit the dirt road, the Sorcerer's Ring spinning crookedly. He looked up when Tear scooped him off the ground and set him back on his feet, "Where are we, how did I get here?"
"I'm not too sure about that myself." Guy's eyes widened when the words left his lips, the fresh memories of their past encounter coming to mind, "That man, maybe he slipped Mieu into Jade's bag."
Jade simply nodded, "Correct, I thought you guys already knew that." His tone was sarcastic, receiving a well deserved glare from the others. The calm genius simply chuckled and looked down at Mieu, "Mieu, can you follow this road and check on a small camp there? It would help us find Luke." Jade added the last bit when he saw the little creature's uninterested face. At the mention of Luke's name, the Cheagle smiled widely and bounced right off, already halfway there.
"Cute," Tear's eyes tensely shifted to a snickering Guy and Anise, "speak one word of what I said and I'll hurt you."
"Anyway," Guy shakily changed the subject, "do we keep going, or do we wait for the little guy to get back?" His only response was the retreating back of Jade and Tear, "Hey, wait for us!" He turned to a disappointed Natalia and groaned.
"Honestly Guy, sometimes you're so hopeless." Natalia walked off, leaving Guy to wallow behind.
xxx
Smoke filled the entire canyon as fuel fires and wisps of flames covered the former battlefield. The scene Mieu came upon was not one anybody would willingly view. The small creature sadly walked through the smoke and flames, looking from side to side at the corpses and charred remains of people and Hoplites, "This is horrible."
"Move it, get the injured at a safe distance, all those not assigned to help clean up, with me!" An authoritative voice echoed through the roaring flames, giving orders to marching soldiers. Mieu curiously slipped through the smoke and peered at the small collection of soldiers covered in silver armor. The one barking orders was wearing a long white coat that flapped in the heated wind, a visor covering his eyes from view. His armor, which rested underneath the coat, seemed to melt into the tough material that formed his boots, which were slightly burned.
"Sir Charles," Another, similarly dressed soldier ran up beside him, "let me treat that injury." The soldier, who seemed to be female, pointed to the cut on his cheek. He brushed her hand away gently, his eyes scolding her from behind the visor.
"We need to press on to Pittsburgh; we should have more than enough men to take it if this was the bulk of their defense." He turned to the silver armored soldiers behind him, "We leave in five minutes, gather as much supplies as you can, we restock in Pittsburgh and prepare to take Fort Xteel (ex-teel)." He opened his mouth to say more, but then his visor snapped to focus on a now quivering little mammal, "What in God's name is that?"
"I don't know," The other coat wearing woman knelt down to look at Mieu, "but it's cute." She smiled at the Cheagle, calming Mieu. However, the blue creature was soon snatched up by the one named Charles, "Charles, let it go, you're hurting it!"
He did as his companion said and loosened his grip, only to toss Mieu at said woman, "Elizabeth, keep an eye on that thing," He faced the western path, "I have a feeling we'll need it." He whistled sharply, summoning a armored horse to him. He hopped onto its back and helped Elizabeth up, 'This feeling reminds me of that Luke character, interesting.'
xxx
"To be honest with you, this place isn't too different from the towns in our world." Guy examined the various people going about their daily errands, the battle happening just over the way seemingly very distant. The only difference they could see was a difference in architecture. The buildings in general seemed to be a strange mix of slanted and curved roofs with white pillars holding up the front entrance and sides.
"Well the general said Luke was somewhere around here, I wander where he is." Anise scanned the small crowd of people, not seeing a spot of red anything, "I can't see him from here."
"Let's go further into town and check the inns and places like that, we might find some sort of clue." Tear started off towards the center of town, not bothering to ask for anyone to accompany her.
The others watched her until she disappeared into the crowd, her dark colored dress blending in quite well, "Let's split up, I'm sure we'll be fine here." Jade glanced at the glints of gold armor he saw peppered through his view, 'The soldiers stand out so easily, it'd be suicide to try anything.' He continued running scenarios through his head as he started to the left part of town, a crowd forming around something interesting.
Guy and Natalia exchanged glances before going the opposite direction, figuring that two sets of eyes would do better in the dense section. Their attention immediately went to a commotion forming around a man shouting something. They decided to work their way closer so they could hear the man over the yelling crowd.
"THE DEFENSES HAVE FALLEN; A FORCE LEFT OVER FROM THE KING'S BANE IS HEADING THIS WAY!"
"How do you know!?"
"Yeah, were you there, why didn't you try to stop them!?"
"I SAW THEM FROM ATOP THE RIDGE; THEY ARE RIDING TO TAKE THE TOWN!"
Guy and Natalia looked at the worried crowd with concern. They didn't know what the King's Bane was, but from the looks of it, it wasn't a good thing. Deciding they'd heard enough, they moved on. However, Natalia did hear something about evacuation, so she put the information away for the moment.
Tear was finding her search was getting her nowhere. Some people had stopped to help her, figuring she was lost or something. When she asked about Luke, describing his crimson hair and other physical characteristics, they'd shrug saying they haven't seen someone like him for days, 'This is hopeless, it's like finding…'
A needle in a hey-stack?
Tear's eye twitched when Cipher chuckled at his finishing her sentence, "Cipher, what is it?" Tear whispered. The last thing she needed was people thinking she's crazy for talking to herself.
Relax child, I'm here to help out. Look for your boyfriend in the pub, he's most likely hanging with soldiers, and soldiers here love the pub.
"Why's that?" Tear started for the pub, a building easily found by the dazed men staggering around outside of it. She already had a good guess, but this was a new place with new rules most likely.
Well, aside from being a lively socializing spot, it's also a good place to get inside information and receive the latest from the Big Five, the nobleman who lead the Helixians.
Tear had to admit, that was pretty organized. Whoever these Big Five guys were, they sure knew how to be discreet. She carefully entered the lively atmosphere of the pub and immediately felt the vibe that screamed "There are many people like Luke infesting this place". She chuckled lightly at how silly it sounded, but she now feel Luke's type of people, calling them "Lukalikes".
Told you it was lively.
"Then I took that things mouth and stuck a Freeze Orb inside it, turned it into a reptilian Popsicle!" A hardy voice laugh with a jolly bellow, the sound of him slapping someone's back echoing through the madness, "Had myself some haggis afterwards, nothing better than that one boyo!"
"Hynes, if you slap the boy any harder, it'll end up matching his hair!" Another jolly voice joked. A roar of laughter followed, the subject obviously doing something that the crowd found funny.
"Come on, lay off guys, I only woke up an hour ago." Tear's eyes grew to the size of dinner-plates upon hearing the voice that just spoke. The tone was slightly deeper, but it was definitely the same. She could practically picture his face as she pushed through the men blocking her view. The men and women having a time all stopped when Tear locked eyes with none other than Luke, "T-Tear?" He stared in disbelief.
"L-Luke," Tear stared right back, "you're alright." She took a deep breath and calmed down. She had to fight off the urge to run to him and slap his head off for scaring her, and the equal urge to hug him until his spine shattered. She was snapped out of her inner battle when a large hand slapped her on the back, the same hardy voice bellowing right beside her.
"Well laddy, you never told us ye had yourself a wee lass already!" The man named Hyne spoke in a heavy accent, enjoying how red Luke's face went, as well as the surprised look on Tear's, "The name is Hyne lass, but I'm sorry to say Luke here already has himself an angel waitin' for him, taken you know."
"Um Hyne," Luke meekly interjected, he leaned close and whispered, "that's her."
Hyne did a double take, glancing between Tear and Luke, "HAH," He slapped them both on the back, "Of course she is lad, a fine catch boyo a fine catch indeed!" Tear gave Luke a blank look, still too dazed to connect the dots. Luke smiled sheepishly and shrugged. With a new speed, he took Tear's hand and wove his way out of the pub, leaving roars of laughter and merriment behind.
Tear finally found her wits and stopped Luke, "Luke, hold on," Said swordsman turned to look at her, his eyes slightly downcast, "you have a lot of explaining to do."
Luke glanced at her eyes and looked right back down, "I know, are the others here too?" He saw her nod, "Good, we'll round them up and gather at the inn, we're leaving tomorrow, I'll explain at the inn, I promise." Both of them turned to start walking, only to come face-to-face with a very tall, very muscular man.
Tear was taken back by how massive the man was, dwarfing Largo by a goot head and shoulders. His skin was darkly tan, almost like he'd gotten too much sun, and his body was covered with red war-paint. Two, beautiful feathers stuck out from a thick black bandana that kept his long, black hair at bay. He looked down at Luke and Tear with coal grey eyes, "You alright?"
Luke gave the giant a large grin, "Yeah Black Hawk, just needed to duck out of there, you know how Hyne is." He motioned towards an even more surprised Tear, "This is Tear, an old companion of mine, Tear, this is Black Hawk, he's assigned to keep me out of trouble."
Tear would've been hurt by being reverted to companion level, if Black Hawk hadn't spoken, "The angel you spoke of, Black Hawk remembers." Luke jumped, a fit of stuttering lunacy leaving his mouth in a lame attempt to hide the redness on his face. Tear simply looked at Luke's reaction and allowed herself to blush a bit.
"Black Hawk, Black Hawk," Tear's eyes continued their surprise series of widening when she heard two familiar voices chant the name of the large man in front of them. Like two cats, the twins Prea and Crea appeared on Black Hawk's shoulders, each one grinning at his stone-like face, "Black Hawk, when are we leaving for the capital, Captain Ajax isn't one to appreciate our being late." Crea stated, lounging on Black Hawk.
Both twins focused their gaze on Tear and giggled, "Tear, good to see you again, I see you found Luke." Prea gave said warrior a sly look, "Keep your excited hormones under control Sir Luke, Tear is a high-class lady after all."
"WHY IS EVERYONE DECIDING TODAY TO PICK ON ME!?" Luke feigned anger and pouted. He knew the twins loved it when he did so, a story he decided to tell his old friends for a good laugh later.
"Luke, we should find Jade and the others." Tear wisely advised through her small smile. She couldn't help it, Luke and Guy's antics with Jade were humorous enough, but this was too much for anyone. Even she found this group amusing.
Luke returned to normal, glad that his actions got Tear to ditch the mad expression, "Alright, where to first?" The hyperactive twins popped up in front of him, waving their hands frantically, "Alright, I pick Prea to explain."
"Aw," Crea pouted, "you always pick her!"
"We know where they are, we tracked them since they entered town!" Prea and Crea pointed to some random direction and marched off, a stoic Black Hawk following.
"Such happy girls," Luke's face changed to a Jade type look, "a bid weird, but happy." He followed, motioning for Tear to do the same. When all of them were on the move, Luke snuck Tear's hand into his, taking her by surprise.
She got the message, but the fact that he was discreet about it was by far the most surprising thing to happen today, 'Now that I think about it,' Tear felt a sudden wave of concern, 'Luke is acting very different, I wander what happened.' She stared at Luke as they walked along, noticing the subtle changes in his expression. It started out cheery, then content, then to blank, a deteriorating sequence that chilled her. She could see in his eyes that he'd seen some things in this world that probably affected him, but the question was, 'What was it?'
It didn't take too long to round everybody up. Aside from everyone being taken by surprise by Black Hawk's intimidating appearance, it all went by pretty smoothly. Jade had been found comfortably placed in the midst of husband-hungry women, a smooth smirk placed on his smart face. Natalia and Guy were rescued from a vendor who mistook them for a married couple, insisting on selling them a "special" potion to help with child production. Needless to say, said vendor had no balls to speak of since Natalia kicked him in his nuts enough times to scare any male nearby.
Anise was a longer story. She had managed to get into it with one of the female soldiers, challenging her to an arm wrestling match. It was a sight too humorous, and cute in some eyes, to interrupt. Between Anise's strained face and physical appearance, it was a scene the twins cooed at, voicing Tear's silent label of cute. After they deemed the match a draw, Anise skipped over to stand right in front of Black Hawk. Where everyone else was taken back, Anise just gawked, "Cool, you look pretty tough big guy!" Everyone shook their head as Anise climbed up to the man's shoulder, "Now this is more like it."
The walk to the inn was filled with everyone greeting Luke and examining his changes. He had grown about another inch and ditched the old white coat and shirt. He kept the pants, but he now wore a black t-shirt that was snug around his torso. It managed to show off a scar on his left arm, one nobody really recognized, yet another thing to talk about. Unlike their meeting in the valley, Luke's hair was cut back to the way it was when they fought Van, only it retained its deeper crimson color.
"Ah, Master Luke, nice to see you again." The innkeeper gave the twins and Black Hawk a warm smile before turning to the others, "Some new friends I see."
"Nah, these are the ones I told you about, this is Tear, Guy, Natalia, Jade, and Anise." He pointed at each one as he named them, the innkeeper greeting them politely, "We'll be staying for one more night before we head off and out of your hair."
"You were no trouble my boy, I'm only glad your injuries healed properly. Now do you want dinner brought to the dining room so you and your friends can talk?" The innkeeper turned his back just in time to miss the suspicious looks Natalia and everyone else shot Luke.
"Y-Yeah, but hold off until I'm sure I'll be alive long enough to eat it." Luke led everyone into the dining hall, taking a seat at the end so everyone could look at him. It was a shaky start, but he went through his talk with Lorelei and what the being told him to do here.
"I see, so how exactly did you end up knowing so many people?" Jade questioned. He figured it would take something pretty good for a large number of skilled warriors to know him by name so soon.
"Well," Luke scratched his head, "that's a funny story…
FLASHBACK
Luke let out a pained grunt when his body hit the ground. He could feel the earth beneath him rumble with the feet pounding into it, he could hear the surprised voices of those who saw him fall.
"He came from the sky!"
"Get him up and out of here, he looks sick!"
"He's kind of cute for a weird flying guy who falls from the sky."
"Crea, put your boyfriend hunt on hold and heal the kid!"
"There's no need to yell Ajax."
Luke felt himself being moved and painfully opened his eyes. He couldn't make out any faces, but he saw a series of warriors fighting off silver blobs. A soldier with white hair scooped him up and ran towards a town, yelling for a medic along the way. Luke fell out of consciousness when he felt gentle ahnds take him, a soothing feeling starting to course through his injured body.
END FLASHBACK
"…after that, I've just been helping out and looking for the guy Lorelei told me about." Luke looked up and sighed deeply, "A whole year of searching and I still don't' know who it is."
"That's why we're heading for the capital; Captain Ajax said he found something worth looking into." Black Hawk reassured.
"I've heard you three talk about this Ajax, what kind of man is he?" Natalia pictured an older man, resembling General Steinberg.
The twins and Black Hawk pointed at Jade, "He's like that guy, only he smiles less." They said in unison.
"Please Lorelei, tell me he's not." Guy looked at Luke for some sort of hope, but his old friend simply shook his head solemnly.
"It's true, it's like someone said 'Let's torture Luke and create a Jade the Second Coming, just to annoy him' and didn't hesitate to do so." Luke chuckled at the horrified looks on everyone's faces.
Jade, however, wasn't too broken up, "I'm interested, I'll have to test this guy out for myself." Jade's face turned into a serious one, "Luke, I've heard talk about enemies coming to this town, I think it'd be wise to leave before they get here."
Luke sighed again, "Yeah, you're probably right. The town's being evacuated early tomorrow morning, so we'll just leave from the evacuation point."
"You seem unusually comfortable Luke, have you fought these DUN soldiers before?" Natalia questioned. Being a princess, she was curious about this entire political situation. She hadn't considered the possibility of a group of people separating and starting a revolution for freedom against mistreatment. Overthrow the throne yes, but not shirk the whole monarchy idea all together.
"Well, I think it's time for us to go to bed, we have an early start tomorrow." Luke stretched, avoiding the question, and started for the door, only to have one of the workers roll in their dinner. Needless to say, he sat back down in a heartbeat. Everyone sighed, though glad that Luke still was his old self. Tear stared at Luke the whole time, finding his avoidance unnerving. He was hiding something, and she didn't like it one bit.
"Before we eat, we have something to do!" The twins caught everyone's attention. They exchanged mischievous looks and focused their gaze on Guy. With one, swift, unstoppable motion, they glomped him, giggling at his mortified face.
"GAH, GET THEM OFF ME!"
A/N: Finally, the gang is together, and with some interesting additions. I decided to have fun this chapter and add humor, seeing how the twins are the comic relief and all. I'll add more pairing material for fans next chapter, for the meat of the story begins there. Please continue to read and review!
