The almighty fourth fan fic! XD About time, too...I'm sorry to everyone who was waiting for this (especially you Hana-), but high school doesn't give you any time off! But enough of my talking, let's continue on my fanfic! BTW, this is the one after Jet and Avalon kissed.
Morning at the Rolling Stone Inn at Little Rock...The five drifters are all fast asleep in their rooms as the day begins. Avalon and Virginia in one, and the men in another. No one was glad for this new day; it brought nothing but more work to all of them. As the sun quietly looked through the window, Jet awoke. He quietly got ready, and began the day before anyone else. He looked at the two remaining drifters to make sure know one else was awake. He quietly snuck out of the room, descended the stairs and entered the inn's restaurant.
He walked towards a table and sat down. He sighed heavily thinking of what happened between Avalon and him last night. He rested his head on his hand and began to play with the fork on the table. As he was in the middle of contemplation, someone had joined him at his table. He looked up and saw Avalon. She gave a small smile and said, "Mind if I join you?" He looked at the floor blushing and quietly said, "Sure, whatever." For what seemed like five hours that was actually five minutes, Jet and Avalon avoided eye contact. Fortunately and unfortunately for them, Gallows had entered the restaurant and broke the silence. Gallows threw his arms around Jet and Avalon, bringing their faces close together, causing them both to blush. "Hey there, kiddos!" chanted Gallows. "Guess what we're doing today!" Jet and Avalon remained silent as they released themselves from Gallows' grip. "We're heading to Baskar Colony! I gotta see Shane for any changes in his dream sights and to fill him in on what we've been doin. I'd bet he'd love to meet you Avalon!" Avalon just gave a small smile. Jet, hating to admit it, was actually somewhat jealous. He scoffed at Gallows and turned his head to the side. Avalon looked at the both of them and said, "I'm sorry, I need to run an errand in town. See ya." Jet and Gallows watched her as she left the Inn. Gallows looked down at him. He noticed that he was still looking in Avalon's direction. Gallows gave a big smirk and said, "Heh, even though she's only fourteen, she has a nice butt, huh Jet?" Jet looked at Gallows angrily and said, "Hmph whatever." Gallows put on a confused look and said, "What? You like her don't you? And it's easy for you to get a piece of that, you saved her life!" "That doesn't mean anything." Jet retorted. Gallows departed and said, "Fine, fine...." Jet scoffed as Gallows left and thought to himself, He's stupid. Tch, I don't like Avalon...
Jet walked outside to see Clive, Virginia, Avalon, and Gallows grouped together near the entrance ready to leave. Virginia looked at Jet and said happily, "C'mon Jet! We gotta go to Baskar Colony!" HE slowly walked over to them. Virginia crossed her arms and thought to herself for a while. "Ok," she said, "now how do we get there faster than sand craft or horse?" she smiled while the rest of the drifters hung their heads. "We only have access to a sand craft right now, nothing else." stated Clive. "Actually," Avalon interrupted, "I've got a couple of Warp Stars." "Hurray," Virginia shouted, "See? Wasn't it a good idea to invite Avalon along?"
The drifters teleported to the train station near Baskar (hey, I forgot what it was called! ;;) and continued on to Gallows' hometown. On the way, Virginia was babbling on about revisiting Gallows' hometown. "Won't it be great to see them all again? Shane and Halle will be so happy to see us again! We haven't seen them in such a long time!" Jet rolled his eyes and responded, "It's only been two weeks." "See what I mean?" she said.
They had arrived at the Colony, and Avalon looked around showing great interest. In the middle of her studying, a boy came running to them, and exclaimed, "Brother!" She watched Gallows and his brother enjoy an anticipated hug. Gallows said, "Hey Shane. Nice to see ya! Boy do I have a lot to tell you! Oh, and this here is a drifter girl we found who speaks some crazy language. Her name's Avalon!" Avalon and Shane briefly shook hands. Shane hastily looked back at Gallows and said, "Oh, Grandmother would like to speak with you about something, brother. She's in the house." "Aww, man! Shane, can't I do this later?" Gallows begged. "I'm sorry brother; Grandmother said it was very urgent. Please go to her." Shane replied. Gallows sighed heavily and rolled his eyes as he walked towards his previous home. Shane looked back at them all and said, "Since my brother has gone off to speak with my grandmother, you are all welcome to do as you please around the village." He looked at Avalon as she looked around the village and asked, "I know you are new to our village. Would you like me to show you around?" She responded, "Thanks, but if it's ok with you, I'd rather look around myself." He smiled and said, "Ok then. But if you need anything, I am willing to do the best I can to help you." She smiled back and answered, "Ok. Thanks." Shane walked away, and Avalon looked around the small village.
She saw Jet sitting alone on a boulder and sat down next to him. "Hey." she said. He looked back at her and didn't answer. "You all right?" she asked. "I'm fine." He responded. They stayed quiet for a while avoiding eye contact with each other. The silence was driving them both nuts, well it was killing Avalon anyway, so she interrupted it, "Um, Jet?" she started. He looked back at her bearing a face of slight annoyance, his answer same as the first question she asked him. She looked down at her feet, worried. She looked back up at him with a straight face that was obviously forced, and asked another question. "About last night…" she paused, and Jet had buried his mouth and nose into his scarves, "I know we're both pretty freaked out about it, so let's forget about it, ok?" She smiled at him, and as relieved he was, Jet only answered, "Sure, whatever." Avalon's worried face also turned into relief and happiness. She jumped off the rock, looked back at Jet, and left to go chat with Virginia. Jet continued contemplating to himself in his spot.
I don't get it. I don't think anyone could just forget like that, but I guess she was probably more regretful than I was. Heh, at least I'll be able to forget about that now and go back to being my old self without any worries.
He figured he had nothing better to do, so he stayed at his rock, looking at all the village folk. It was a quaint, quiet village with nice people, and Jet wondered if he had ever lived in a place like this, or if he did what it would be like. He continued looking around at the small colony, and stopped upon some chickens, when he heard Gallows call them all into Halle's house. He gave a great sigh, and proceeded towards the house like the others.
They all entered and placed themselves around the fire like all the other times they visited, and Jet secluded himself from them and stood against the wall behind him and crossed his arms. He made himself comfortable and noticed Avalon was also away from them sitting on the stairs. His attention was drawn back to Halle as she cleared her throat and began to dictate her need for their presence. "I have asked you to be here for a very important reason. Lately, Shane and I have been getting a powerful aura coming from the east. I don't know why we've been feeling it right now; it feels like it's been there forever. I suggest you go and find out what it is. If it's anything powerful, I know the prophets will be after it. I also suggest you take Shane with you. Since he can feel the aura, he'll lead you to it." Avalon looked at the floor and whispered, "Prophets…?" Shane looked up at her with surprise and said, "I get to go with Gallows and his friends, grandmother?" "Of course Shane," she explained, "Your big buffoon of a brother obviously can't feel where the aura's coming from, you can lead the way to whatever it is." Gallows gave her an angry look and placed his hands on his hips. Halle looked around the room and spoke once more, "Please take this up. I know you are all still drifters, so I'll offer an award. If you find it, you are allowed to keep it." Jet thought to himself, something that powerful has got to be worth a lot of Gella, we have to go after it. Virginia had been thinking to herself while staring at the fire in the middle of the room. She looked up at Halle, and announced, "You're right. If it is really that powerful, the Prophets are bound to come a knockin'. We'll take this mission and your offer for the reward." Halle gave a sigh of relief, and thanked Virginia. "So it's settled then. Please prepare yourself here, and Shane will be waiting for you by the entrance."
They all began to grab all the supplies they needed, and headed towards the entrance. He met them half way and said happily, "I'm really excited that I get to go with you and your friends, brother! I've dreamed to get the chance to come along on a mission with you like this!" Avalon leaned to her right and whispered in Virginia's ear, "This kid doesn't get out much, huh?" Virginia gave a soft smile and shook her head.
They all ran to the sand craft and mounted their positions: Virginia the helmsman, Clive the shooter, Gallows the deckhand, Jet the harpooner, and Shane sat behind Virginia accompanied by Avalon. He looked around the sand craft excitedly. "Wow, this is such amazing technology!" Avalon looked to her right and said, "It's okay…" He had finished his studying of the sand craft and remembered Avalon was the newest addition to their team. He asked her, "So you are new?" Avalon remained at her position and said, "Yeah." "So do you fight well?" Shane asked. Avalon looked back at him sheepishly and replied, "I have to or I could never survive in the wasteland." She began to get slightly annoyed at Shane, and he asked her another question, "Do you use an ARM?" "No. I prefer to fight somewhat hand to hand combat, so I use a sword. It takes much more strength to utilize this weapon than it does to pull a trigger." "I see." Shane responded. He hadn't noticed that Avalon was tired of his questions, and asked one more that had triggered her anger, "So what does your family think about you being a drifter?" Avalon grinded her teeth and forced a response, "I have no family." "Sorry." Shane apologized. Avalon gave a slight mumble, and closed her eyes as she sank into her chair.
They must have been heading east for at least an hour until Shane had gotten up and shouted, "There it is!" He pointed to a small isle in front of them and they slowly reached shore from the ocean of sand. They all got off from the sand craft and waited around. Gallows helped Shane off. He studied his surroundings and continued pointing in front of them and said, "It's not far. I doubt it's a mile away. If we keep walking this way in a straight line, we won't miss it." Virginia faced her comrades and said, "Let's get going!"
They had been heading the same way for less than five minutes, and they had already found a temple. Shane looked at the temple and said, "It's in there all right." Before entering the temple, they all studied it. It wasn't as glamorous as Avalon's temple had been, it actually looked like it had been there for centuries, and whoever built it didn't put much thought into it. They threw their opinion aside and headed inside. They entered the temple, and upon entering, Virginia gave a huge gasp. "There's nothing in here! How could this be? Maybe someone got to it before us!" Avalon stepped forward and gave her theory, "I don't think so. If it's valuable, why would you make it so easy and just throw it in the middle of a temple without traps? It's in here all right, but we gotta find it. Besides, if it's not here, how did Shane lead us here in the first place?" Virginia sighed then clasped her hands together. "You're right! Now let's go find it!"
They all spread out in the one room and searched for anything that looked like it could lead them to the power source, but to no avail. Jet went to a far corner of the room and dusted the floor with his hand to see if there was any chance of anything being there. He heard something like faint mumbling to his left, and when he looked in that direction, he saw Avalon running her hand against the wall singing softly, "Bandages on my legs and my arms from you, bandages, bandages, bandages…" He returned to his corner and continued dusting the floor for the hell of it until he knew there was nothing there. He slapped the floor, got up, and ran into Avalon. "Don't worry now, don't worry now, don't worry 'cause it will all turn around…oops, sorry." She rubbed the back of her neck and walked past him. He wheeled around and asked her, "Did you find anything?" She turned around to answer his question with an irritated face and said, "Does it look or sound like I got anything? If I had something I would've screamed it out by now!" He shot back at her, "Hey! Don't bite my head off, I was just asking!" "Well thanks for asking something you didn't need to!" "I can ask whatever I want, I don't need you telling me what not to do!" "Shut up! You have such a big head, no one can tell you anything!" Avalon and Jet's bickering was so loud that everyone else had stopped searching and started staring at the both of them. "No one is supposed to tell me anything! I have my own life, and I can do whatever the hell I want!" "Fine, then I have my own life too, and I'm telling you to SHUT UP!!!" "Rrrgh, all you do is bitch at me, and ever since I met you my life has been nothing but hell!!!" As Avalon opened her mouth to verbally attack him again, she stopped and looked at the floor. Everyone else had joined her. The floor began to shake and open through the middle, and it collapsed as if it was struck by an earthquake. All six of them shouted as they fell into what they were sure was their death. The fall seemed almost endless, until their screaming was flatly interrupted by a hard surface in the dark. "What the…?" said Gallows. He fumbled around in the dark for anything hopefully flammable, and came across what felt like a long piece of wood. He shouted in the darkness, "Cremate!" The lone stick of wood was set ablaze by a crimson fire that lit their surroundings. Jet rubbed his head and felt a firm grip on his arm. He slowly turned and found Avalon, her head looking at the floor, grabbing Jet's arm. He raised his eyebrow at her, and as she looked up she let go. "I don't like the dark, and I tried to find the nearest person so I wouldn't be alone…sorry." He scoffed at her and replied, "Heh. First you scream at me and now you're looking towards me for comfort. Some drifter you are." She frowned at him and said, "Shut up. I told you, I was trying to find anyone in the dark! You were the closest! Besides I didn't know who the hell it was as long as knew it was SOMEONE and that I wasn't alone…" "Whatever, say what you want." He got up and left to join the rest of the drifters as they gathered near Gallows and the light. Avalon sighed and thought to herself, alone and in the dark again…
She quickly got up and ran to Gallows as well. Gallows looked around and said, "Where the hell are we?" Clive observed what they had landed into as well and said, "It seems that Avalon and Jet's loud quarreling caused the weak foundation of the top floor to give in. I think we are one step closer to finding our prize." Virginia faced the both of them with a grin and said, "Good job bitching at each other guys! Now we can find whatever that powerful is aura is coming from!" Jet and Avalon looked at each other, scoffed, turn opposite directions from each other, and crossed their arms. Gallows was looking around the room and found a small passage way in front of them. "Hey, there's a way for us to go over there!" "Perhaps it's the way to our power source, let us proceed." stated Clive. "Alright, let's go!" chanted Virginia.
They had entered what turned out to be like a long hall, and had been walking forever until they had found their next obstacle: multiple passageways. "Aw crap, how're we gonna get through this one? There are way too many for us to split up!" "Easy," interrupted Avalon, "Shane, which way is the aura coming from?" Shane looked at her, and then walked to each of the doorways until he came upon one third to the right and said, "This way!" He began running without them into the dark abyss. Avalon wondered how he wasn't afraid of just running into the unknown like that, and she noticed everyone else had ran into there as well. She shouted, "Hey, wait for me!" She cautiously but quickly walked towards the door, until she was shocked to see a dark figure about her size emerge from the door way. It walked until it was practically face to face with her, and said, "Hurry up, will ya?" Avalon smiled, glad to see Jet had waited for her. "Thanks for waiting." "Shut up and let's go already…" they walked together into the darkness, and Jet had barely noticed that his face was hot.
They walked until they caught up with the rest of them and Shane, who was tired already and had decided to slow his pace. As they advanced, it began to feel rather humid. "Geez, why is it so hot in here?" asked Gallows. Clive put his hand to his chin and said, "It could be a result of the powerful aura. I think we are closer than we thought." Avalon watched with horror written all over her face as the make-shift torch slowly went out. Virginia told Gallows to light the torch again. He answered, "I can't. It's so humid in this place that the torch is damp and won't light anymore. Ah, but its fine, we'll just keep going. If there was anything in here we would've come across it by now. No worries!" Avalon made a noise like a small whimper and grabbed Jet's arm again. He whispered to her, "Look, this time I won't say anything, but please promise to not squeeze so tight, it gets annoying." She whispered back, "No problem. And by the way, thanks a lot Jet, I really appreciate it. You're really nice when you want to be." He scoffed and told her, "I'm not nice…I'm expecting pay back for this." She rolled her eyes and stuck her tongue out at him, oblivious to the fact that they were enclosed by darkness as black as the midnight sky.
They continued walking around in the darkness for what seemed like forever, until finally they found a dim light at the end of their tunnel. "Finally, now let's go check to see if that's the power source!" said Virginia. They began to slowly advance in case of any kind of danger, and in no less than thirty seconds the light grew brighter until they had entered another room. They all looked around the room in great awe, as the outside of the treasure's stronghold seemed to have deceived them. This room was much more beautiful than the temple. Velvet red drapes lined the walls, and in the center of the room, a raised altar stood, made of exquisite obsidian. Placed neatly on the altar was a crimson diamond in the likeness of a star. Avalon's eyes widened. "Wow! It's so pretty!" said Virginia, also eyeing the star. "That's the power source?" questioned Gallows. "Yes." Answered Shane, "I can feel it much stronger here than anywhere. Let us retrieve it and show it to Grandmother." "Let's." said Virginia. She stepped up to the altar and slowly reached for the star. As she raised her hand to reach for it, an invisible force hit her, and thrust her back against a wall. Clive rushed to her aid, and helped her up. Avalon looked back at the altar and said, "What the hell was that?" An audacious laugh echoed through the room, and a familiar female stood near the star accompanied by a young man with blue hair wielding a bayonet. Avalon recognized the weapon the man bore as one of the hardest weapons to utilize, and wondered who he was. The familiar woman known as Melody raised her arm to conceal her lips and said, "Hmph. Didn't think we'd find out about this, now did we?" Avalon thought aloud, "Oh great, not this bitch again…" Melody brought her arm down in a storm of fury and bellowed, "You little wench! I'll kill you! Janus!" The man stood tall and walked towards the team of drifters and Shane. Gallows put his arm back to protect Shane, clenching his teeth, and Avalon shouted, "Whoa, that's Janus Cascade?" Jet gave her a peevish look and yelled, "Look, now's not the time! He's fighting for them, and he's our enemy. Now shut up and get ready to fight." Avalon rolled her eyes and withdrew her sword, a sword whose blade was fashioned in the shape of flames, and was ebony black. Janus looked at her sword with a raised eyebrow and said, "Guess I'm not the only one here with an unorthodox weapon huh?" Avalon gave a stern determined look, ready to fight. Removed from the line of fire, Melody tried to remove the diamond from the altar, and activated a kind of defense system built in the room. The altar caught on fire, and the beautiful drapes had also caught on fire. The altar descended into the floor, and the entire room began to shake like the first floor. "What's happening brother?" Shane asked as he frantically looked around the room, trembling in fear. "I don't know…" Gallows answered. Virginia screamed as debris began to collapse from the ceiling. Avalon heard a loud crack, and looked above her with wide eyes as she stood there numb with shock. Jet thought to himself, how many times is this gonna happen? He ran to Avalon to try and save her, but a flash of red passed by and Avalon was taken away in Janus' arms. Janus left back to Melody's side, and said with Avalon still in his arms, "See ya kiddos." Jet and Avalon had their last look at each other, then Melody, Janus, and Avalon left in a cloud of smoke. "Avalon!!!" Jet shouted. "How are we going to get out of here?" said Virginia, frantically looking around the once beautiful room, enveloped in flames, collapsing bit by bit, planning to take them with it. Shane searched feverishly in a pouch of his for an unknown item. He pulled out what seemed to be a purple orb, and in a flash, they were all back at the entrance of the temple, watching it fall back into the sand, seeming to be forever lost. "We lost it….now we'll never know what that was." sobbed Virginia. Jet looked at her with an angry face and yelled, "Who gives a shit about that frickin' star! What the hell's the matter with you? Don't you think there's something missing here? WE LOST AVALON! The prophets didn't get the star, so they took her! I can't believe you're more upset about that piece of crap…." Virginia looked at the floor sad. Clive tried to break the conflict by saying, "Let us head back to Baskar to try and find a way to save Avalon." Jet replied by scoffing, and they headed back home via sand craft.
There! I have finished! Please rate and review, and for a heads up, chapter five is already in progress folks!!! This one'll be on way faster than number 4!