Author's Note: Sorry this chapter has taken so long. As I told Lynnwood earlier (I'd poke her with a sharp stick to get her writting again, if I wasn't afraid of her beating me to death with it, lol.), I haven't had writter's block, so much as a complete lack of anythign to write.
That, and the content is rather difficult to write, considering Jorowyn's past. Hope the chapter makes up for the long wait. Enjoy.
Never Leave Jorowyn Alone
Chapter 10
BY: Ginsan
As they tried to stealthily navigate their way through the Palace of Pluto, Diana was still a little confused. Yes, the Palace of 30 years ago was now in much better shape than the one they had just left, but it still felt the same. Very empty, and nearly deserted.
Ahead, Jorowyn suddenly stopped, causing her to run into him.
"Why'd you stop so suddenly."
He stood rigidly, and she could see the shiver run through him.
"The greatest evil the Universe has ever know has found us. I warn you now, she's two feet tall, sickenly adorable, and not nearly as innocent as she wants you to think."
Diana turned around in confusion, and spotted a little girl standing several feet behind them. She was wearing a dark purple dress with tiny little red ribbons decorating it. She was indeed about two feet tall, with gorgeous dark green hair nearly as long. She stared at them with wide-open eyes of a very familiar garnet color, while she sucked the thumb of one hand and the other trailed some sort of doll behind her.
Diana leaned back to whisper to Jorowyn. "Is that..."
"Yes. Trista."
"Wasn't she just an old lady..."
"That her was. This is the 'her' of 30 years ago."
"How does that work exactly?"
"It's complicated."
"What do we do?"
"Depends on her."
The girl continued to stare at them for several minutes, before she finally took her thumb out of her mouth.
"You were at the Time Gates."
Jorowyn frowned as he looked aorund to see if anyone else was nearby. There should have been some sort of minder watching over her...
"Yes, we were."
"Mommy and Daddy said it's forbden, forban, bad to go there. I'm gonna tell."
"If you were going to tell on us, you'd have done so already. What do you want."
She grinned, before holding her arms out.
"I am not picking you up."
She frowned, before she started sucking in air.
"You scream, how do you explain that you were at the Time Gate?"
She stopped midbreath, considering that.a moment, before eventually deflating. She glared at Jorowyn.
"You're mean."
"I know."
Diana smacked him, before squatting down to look at Trista.
"It's ok little one, he's a jerk. Why don't you tell me what you want, and we'll help you."
Trista stared at her suspisciously a moment, before holding her arms out again. Diana scooped her up, then turned back to Jorowyn.
"Was that really so hard to do?"
"Yes actually."
Diana rolled her eyes, before looking at Trista.
"OK sweetie, what can we do for you to keep us all out of trouble?"
"Help me find Daddy."
Jorowyn looked at her for a moment.
"Trista, how old are you?"
She thought about it really hard for a moment, before hold out all the fingers on her free hand.
"Mommy says I'm five."
Jorowyn sighed, before reaching over, and taking Trista from a confused Diana.
"How about we go find your Mommy instead."
"No! I want my Daddy."
"Trista, you know we can't do that."
Diana was starting to get an idea of what was going on, but hoping she was wrong.
"Yes you can. You came out of the Time Gate, I saw you. You can take me to Daddy!"
"You know it doesn't work like that."
"But you did it."
"We were given extra special permission. And we're not allowed to tell anyone about it."
Trista had already been tearing up, but now she couldn't hold it back, and was sobbing all over Jorowyn.
"But I want my Daddy back. I miss him. So does Mommy."
Jorowyn was silent for a moment, before gesturing for Diana to bring the Armoir, as he began walking through the Palace.
"I know it feels lonely without him around. I lost my Daddy a long time ago. I miss him every day."
"You do?"
"I do. I know it's hard without him around, but you know what?"
"What?"
"As long as you remember him, and love him, he's never really gone you know."
"He isn't?"
"As long as you keep him in your heart, he'll never be gone. But you have to remember something. If you're sad, you'll make him sad. You don't want that do you?"
"No..."
"You still have your Mommy. I bet the two of you have all kinds of stories you can tell each other to remember him."
"We could?"
"Of course you could."
"Can. Can we go to Mommy?"
"Of course. Do you know where she is right now?"
"In the library. She has lots of papers she has to play with all day."
"Ah, then I bet she'd love an excuse to do something else."
Within a few minutes, there were deep inside the Palace, and begining to get stares from passing servants and more than a few of the guards. Jordan stopped outside of the library, and set Trista down.
"Remember what I told you, and everything will be fine."
"Thank you mister."
"Run along to your Mom."
He watched her dissapear into the library, before turning around to a smirking Diana.
"Not a word."
"Awww, you're just a cuddly teddy bear."
He fumed all the way out of the Palace. They got out pretty quickly, now that the need for stealth was long gone.
And that was when Diana got her first look at Pluto.
Since no one on Pluto lived on the surface, and they had snuck in in the middle of the night, most of the illumination had been turned down. Now, however, they were walking in the middle of the day.
The cavern the Palace was located inside, and the rest of the capitol city for Pluto, was massive. Massive, and made entirely out of colored crystals. In fact, a majority of the buildings themselves appeared to made of crystals.
"Most of the cavern cities have crystal walls, but none are as big, or as perfect as this one. It's actually a nearly perfect dome. All the crystals on the inside were used as building materials, except for the Crystal Gardens. A little Crys-Tech was used to actually grow some of the buildings, but most of this was done by the Plutonians themselves."
"It's beautiful. Can we see the garden later?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"Because the Youma destroyed it when they attacked Pluto, and I don't want to be reminded of how much work I have ahead of me to fix it all."
Not sure how to respond to that, they traveled in silence the rest of the way to the Teleporter.
"Next stop, Hell."