The five of the Maxwell Gang stepped onto a pile of accumulated sand. Clive was looking around rather confused while scratching his head. This was supposed to be where an ancient town with the Twilight Sun was meant to be. Obviously he was wrong.
"So...where are these Ruins of Sol that you promised?" Jet stated simply as an aggravated groan took over for the rest of his speech and he went off to take a piss.
Gallows meanwhile was glaring at Emilia who understood the glare. She had given him wrong advice, and she did feel just the slightest bit guilty now. "Will you at least stop looking at me like that?" She wondered.
"We'll see." He scoffed and went for a brief walk.
Virginia simply stood near to Clive as they worked out the problem. "Did you write down what you read in the book at the library?"
"No." Clive replied. "I have good memory. I don't write stuff down unless I need to." Clive noted. "I was sure these were the right coordinates." He rubbed his chin in thought.
Virginia just looked at him as if he were impossible and shifted her focus to the ever expanding conflict that was brewing with Gallows and Emilia. "Hey, you guys just need to kiss and make up." Emilia stared at her. "At least the making up part should take place." She shrugged.
"Fine, Gallows, I'm sorry I gave you bad insight on how we women work."
"I accept your apology." Gallows humbly said with crossed arms. Emilia cleared her throat. "What?"
"You deserve to apologize to me!" Emilia argued.
"No I don't, you were the one who was wrong here." Gallows defended.
"You spit in my breakfast!" She shouted.
"And you still ate it?" He questioned with a look of disgust.
"Spit's not gonna kill me." She groaned. "Unless...do you have some sort of weird disease I should know about aside from lechery?"
"Hey!"
"Guys, guys." Virginia came between them. "You're not getting anywhere at this rate. Why can't you two just be nice friends like you used to be?"
There was a silence. "I can't be his friend." Emilia simply said. "I can be his teammate...and...other things, but definitely not his friend. The closest he's getting at this rate is being an acquaintance. He gets to be part of an aggregate group that he solely is part of."
Gallows was about to respond, but stopped. "What's an aggregate?"
"An aggregate group is a group of people without any real intimacy, and are only together due to being in the same place at the same time." Emilia explained.
"Oh?" He stood there a moment. "I think I lost any hostility for you when you confused me with that word, so, I'm sorry for whatever it was that I offended you by."
"Same here. The apology part at least."
"There, now, isn't that better?" Virginia said with a smile. Then she looked to the distance. "What's taking Jet so long?"
"There are some weird monsters out here. They sort of jump at it when they see you using it." Gallows stated as if he was wise. Too bad it was about a disgusting thing like animals that bit at...hanging water pipes.
"Hey!" They heard Jet and went for him. Half in part of what Gallows said. That would make for an interesting visit to the nearest doctor and Gallows would be more than glad to laugh at Jet for the whole trip. When they got to him he was just standing around so Gallows was disappointed. "Look there."
"What? This stone you peed on?" Virginia muttered in disgust.
"No!" Jet shouted in embarrassment. "It's part of the ruins!" Jet explained. "They're just buried under all this yellow dirt."
"That's right it's yellow." Gallows added.
"Will you shut up about my evacuation processes and just use Fengalon to blow the dirt away!" Jet said in defense. Gallows just looked at him confused and asked 'Evacuation processes?'. Jet glared at him.
"Jet's right." Clive added to cool the hostilities. "I'll call on Fengalon and get rid of this stuff. You guys stand back." They all nodded and moved away as Clive summoned the guardian of wind and the winds removed the majority of sand that landed to the sides—and some on Clive himself. In the new clearing was an entrance to a dark ruin.
They all formed a line at the door as Clive shook off the sands. "So...this is it?" Virginia questioned taking a deep breath in.
"What do you think we'll find?" Gallows wondered.
"Who cares?" Jet grunted and walked inside followed by Virginia and then Emilia. The last two followed soon after into the dark. Virginia was nice enough to light a few torches and they took those down into the long corridor.
As they come into a larger room that their torches can't even light up Virginia grabs onto Jet's arm. "Jet, no."
"What do you mean?"
"Look." She placed her torch lower to the ground and it was now apparent that there was a trench full of snakes a step away from him. "Do...you think they're poisonous?"
Clive had a look. "No. They are not brightly colored like most are, and I'm pretty sure they're just the type who bite and it hurts." Which still was not very comforting to the rest. "They're probably only here to spook away intruders." Clive noted.
They looked ahead and around the room and saw that the only way across was by jumping the ten feet across the pit. Emilia raised her hand. "I can't jump that far in my current state."
"I doubt I can make it either." Virginia said concerned.
"I ain't jumping that thing." Gallows pointed out.
Jet groaned and Clive nodded. "Jet and I will go on ahead then. We should be okay." Clive said with confidence.
Jet and Clive did as was planned and got a good running jump and crossed the pit. Jet first, and then Clive followed after. Clive gave the others a look of assurance and moved on with Jet for the door far across the room.
The most noticeable thing was that the room was well lit by an outside source. It would seem that they had traveled into a mountain that was nearby. Jet did not care about that, but rather the treasure chest he noticed in front of them. He was quick to that and attempted to open it to no avail. Then he went to pick the lock. One problem. "Uh...it's...locked, but...there's no lock?" Jet mentioned in confusion.
Clive observed what Jet was talking about and surveyed the room. "There must be an external switch. Not even a duplicator would open that." Clive stated and looked about the room. He fired his ARM at a rope he spotted at the side. At that multiple mirrors that were turned away and hidden from them moved about the room taking many positions around the room. The light from outside connected with one and it bounced across to the others until it landed on the chest. At that the lid of the chest lifted. "There we go."
Jet went to the box again and stared into it. "This is the Twilight Sun?" He questioned pulling out a red-orange translucent gem. "It's just a stupid gem. I was...sort of expecting more, y'know?"
Clive inspected it. "It's just an average gem. No use to us in any way." He noted.
"Correct." Jet and Clive turned abruptly to see a man with black and green hair and a calm face that seemed impassive and showed no signs of any emotion. Was he friend or foe? Jet could not read that from him like he could so many others. "Seeing that you have no use for it, hand it to me." A woman wearing a blood red cloak entered the room beside the man. All her features clouded aside from her noticeable curves and her being shorter than the man by at least a head's length.
"Like Hell we will!" Jet spat as he stepped in front of Clive who held the gem. He makes a move for his ARM, but is quickly thrown to the ground without ever making any noticeable move.
The man in his brown shirt tucked into white pants stood there examining the Twilight Sun. "Thanks a bunch." Clive was equally surprised as he looked to his now empty hand.
"I...never even saw him move." Jet stuttered. "A demon?"
"No, very human." The man replied. "Let me introduce myself; I am Nobuo W...Well, I'll leave my surname a mystery for now. I like to see your type squirm and get frustrated like that." He grinned. "Over here though, I would like for you to meet,"
"Mother!" Emilia stumbled into the room followed by a tired looking Virginia. They used Gallows's limp body after he was defeated by Nobuo to gap the distance along with their own bodies and made it across. "What are you doing?" Emilia questioned with intensity.
The woman looked to her. "My little Emilia. You've grown up so much." The woman replied with a smile full of heart. A total clash too Nobuo's steely grins.
"Look, I don't care about who you are! I'm taking that thing back!" Jet announced as he began to close the distance between him and Nobuo, but Nobuo throws a punch into Jet's gut sending the Drifter to the ground. Jet was quick on the rebound though and looked to Clive. "Clive!" He tossed the Twilight Sun at Clive who caught it. Nobuo was just as surprised to see what he thought he still held in Clive's hands now.
"Clive, you always were the better one." Nobuo laughed. "I will love killing you." Nobuo is quick to advance on Clive and tossed the nerd into the second room with the pit. He was unable to get Clive to drop the Twilight Sun though, and so he continued forward unleashing attacks that Clive blocked without breaking a sweat. The punches went on for so long that Clive did not see the kick that tripped him coming. And it was that moment that Nobuo snagged the Twilight Sun and pushed Clive into the pit of snakes. The others filed into the room as Emilia's mother came to Nobuo's side. "It was nice seeing you all, but I must be off. Carole." He looked to Emilia's mother and handed her the Twilight Sun. "You know what to do."
She nodded and set her focus on the gem as the Maxwell Gang—minus Clive—regrouped and prepared to attack. Carole let out a shout. "Twilight Sun hic et ubique!" And before any of them could respond they were blinded by a bright light of orange.
As the light died down Jet opened his eyes to find himself somewhere he was definitely not expecting to see. He stood on the edge of the coast looking at an ocean. An ocean of water as a warm, salty breeze came through his hair and the surrounding grass. "What the...Where am I?" He questioned in paranoia. He touched the ground and dug up the ground. The dirt was real. The feel of the sand was real. The smell was real. He knew it was not though. "What is this place?"
"Jet!" He turned to a familiar voice. One he usually dreaded hearing, but he felt stronger hearing it. Virginia's voice. Then he did a double-take and lost all hope. She was Virginia, but her hair was up in a bun, and she was searing earrings, and makeup, and her dress was a sky blue one of elegance. She was not Virginia.
"V-Virginia?"
"Of course. Who else would I be?" She giggled. "Jet, what are you doing way out here? Everyone's waiting for you back home for the Birthday Boy."
"It's...my birthday?"
"I hope so. You are acting quite strange. Are you feeling well?" She asked with concern.
"Are...you sure you're talking to Jet?"
"Yeah." She laughed.
"Jet Enduro."
"Of course!"
He glanced to his side and saw his ARM. He looked back to her. "Virginia,"
"What's wrong?" She eyed him grabbing his ARM. "What are you doing?" She said in fear.
"You're not real." He said silently and shot through her. The blood looked real enough, but the world around him collapsed and he found himself in the Ruins of Sol again. Nobuo and Carole long gone. His friends passed out on the ground probably in the same state he was in earlier. He went to the pit and saw Clive in the same state. At least the snakes were not biting him. They seemed docile. Jet ran to Gallows who was nearest and shook him violently. "Get up idiot!" He followed with some name calling that ended with no response from the Baskar. He was alive though. Jet knew that much. Jet stood and made a running jump across the pit. He would tack down Nobuo and find the answers. As he ran though he passed by a man with near gray blonde hair who was just a little older than him. He paused and stepped back to meet the man who stood there leaning against the wall.
"So...you just going to leave your friends here?"
Jet stared at him warily. "I...don't have any friends."
"Then...why did one of them visit you in Twilight Sun?" The man wonders.
"I don't have time for your mind-games." Jet groaned and ran forward.
The second man stared after with a grin that mocked Jet. "Foolish brother. I can't help them. Why do you run?" Clyde asked to himself as he broke away and followed after his younger brother.
Meanwhile, Clive had found himself sitting in his home. He found that a pleasant and odd development seeing that he recalled just lying in a pit with snakes, and not sitting in his home. The most he could figure was that he was back home. He had been poisoned by one of the snakes he said were not poisonous and the group brought him back to live in his home. He had already found from his wife that that was the case, and that during the meantime the rest of the group had gone on to get the Twilight Sun back, which turned out to just be a gem, and they also got Ark of Destiny to take away the reward for them and prove them innocent. Clive was told to just rest, and was glad that he could return to peace.
Too bad he was in all actuality still lying in that pit of snakes.
Gallows himself found his body in front of an older mature woman who wore traditional Baskar clothing. He stared at her. "Aren't you going to give your dear mom a hug?" She questioned.
"I...yeah." Gallows hugged her not too sure about what was going on. He could no longer remember anything except being here with his mother. It had been so long since he's seen her mother when he barely could recall her anyway. Though he did feel he should be somewhere else aside from his village with his mother he did not know where he should be.
Jet meanwhile was at the exit to the ruins when he noticed Clyde following him. "What are you doing?"
"Leaving." Clyde replied.
"You're just getting in the way." He spat back. "Who are you anyway?"
"Why should you care? I'm just another Drifter. Saw this place and thought money. Nothing here, and so, there's nothing of interest." He said with a wave as he walked away. "Will you really leave them here?"
"Wha?"
"I think you're doing the wrong thing again, Jet. If you hate memories, why make more that you will wish to forget about?" Clyde simply said and as the wind blew by he disappeared into the sands.
Jet stood there and tried to watch Clyde. "Who are you?" He shouted. He got no answer and the man vanished into the floating sands that wind picked up. He stood there and took a breath and swallowed. Too bad he swallowed air and so he started a sort of choking fit as he coughed.
"You okay? You look sick?" Virginia came to attention at those words. "Were you sleeping again?"
She looked over at Jet who sat in a nice, peach button-up shirt and jeans. An armchair in an ornate room. Like a den. She sat in one as well. She thought she was doing something else. The more she seemed to focus on Jet, the more she seemed to forget where that place was and what she was doing. "Uh...no, I'm fine."
"That's good. Wouldn't you hate it if I had to tell your father that he had to go home because you were sick?" He laughed.
"My father?" She nearly jumped.
He looked at her funny. "Yeah...don't you remember that we found him? He was in a coma all those years and that ghost-hologram thing we knew was his stored memory."
"He...was?" She wondered in a quiet shock.
And, Emilia stood before a young man and her mother. Emilia's own memory becoming altered and hazy. "M-mother?"
"Oh, Emilia dear. Are you finally ready?"
As Emilia grabbed her temples she saw the void become the hanger in Jolly Roger again. Her mother standing right there with her, and, the man she loved a few years ago beside her. Lloyd Robertson. "Are you okay, Emilia?" He questioned in his dreamy voice. His handsome strong jaw, and dark hair.
"I...yeah, I am...But...No." She stumbled back some. "You're dead!" She shouted and a hand was placed on her shoulder. "You?"
"Did you figure it out? It's not real at all." Jet replied as Emilai's world fell around them and the two stood in the Ruins again. "We should go help the others."
"How do we?" She asked in confusion.
"There is always that doubt in their minds that tells them that what they see is false. If you are on the same emotional level as they are...you will end up there with them."
"How...do you end the dream?"
"By not wanting it." Jet simply said before sitting besides Virginia. "Go help Gallows, and then we'll worry about getting Clive up here." She nodded and Emilia ran to Gallows's side.
Virginia was still believing that she was in the same room awaiting her father. Jet was sharply dressed to her side. "Everyone's coming, right?"
"The whole gang, your uncle and aunt, and your father." Jet simply stated.
"They aren't coming at all." The true Jet replied as he stepped through the front door. "You're waiting on no one except me."
"J-Jet?" She looked between the two of them.
"He must be a demon." The false Jet announced as he took out his ARM.
"I could kill you, but you're not real." Jet replied in a calm manner. "Virginia, come with me now. We have to go get the Twilight Sun back. Your...father is dead. He's not coming back."
"I...know." She sadly replied. "It all makes sense now." The second Jet vanished. "I...wanted...to believe the lie."
"I know. If I wanted to...I would have too." Jet replied as he fell into his arms as the world fell around them, and once again Jet was back in the ruins where he always was.
"Gallows!" Emilia was shouting as she walked around Baskar Colony. Too bad she had no idea where it was she should look in this false world of Gallows. She had no idea how far these worlds could stretch and had not the attention to find out. She spotted her subject of concern though and broke the dinner of Gallows and his fellow family. "Gallows, we don't have time to slack off!"
He stared at her. "Em...Emilia?" He wondered as he stood up. "What...am I doing here? What's going on?"
"I don't know." Emilia honestly replied. "It's something my mother did. I'm not sure how. I think...it was more Twilight Sun, and not my mother."
"We have to find the-"The two were back and staring at the other three of their group. "Where's that guy?"
"Long gone." Jet answered. "We best start thinking of a plan."
"Agreed." Clive replied as did the rest with nods.