Author's note: Hey everyone, thanks for your reviews, they're awesome to read. x3 This next chapter is the last chapter of the first part. So worry not, there is still plenty to read! Enjoy!
Chapter 11
Reunion
One year went by and Leon had made himself quite big among the Earth sciences, coming up with various new ideas. His biggest creation was the idea of teleportation. He filled the holes in all of the puzzled theories, which could not pinpoint how this would go about. He also managed to make his own ship, just like he said he would. It was his idea, therefore, to go find out how the others are doing. Claude had taken Rena to a beautiful place in Brazil, where there was the equivalent of Shingo forest there, only bigger. The stars were shining and it was when the sky was crystal clear. The stars danced in the sky and all sorts of pretty colours could be seen. He chose that moment to propose to Rena. She blushed and accepted.
Ariette had given up the idea of college. Instead she took to the arts, as she had always been a lover of art, literature and music. She was very creative and this meant that she could do all three very well. It kept her mind out of the depressive thoughts she got when she tried one week of college. She had looked at the picture of her and Claude, back when they had matching hair colour. She had painted beautiful pictures of Claude and herself, Claude and Rena and all four of them. A visitor to their house, who was visiting her mother, had noticed the pictures and this led to picture commissions. People liked the emotion she put into the pictures of them and their loved ones. But before the year had passed, she eventually fell into sullenness once more. But the prospect of seeing her new friends again seemed to perk her up.
So it was then that they got onto Leon's specially made ship and headed out into the vast sea of stars once again. They headed to Tetragene first of all, as it was on the way. They managed to find Opera in a pub, challenging everyone to a drinking contest, with Ernest watching from the sidelines, sighing as he let her get on with it. Claude sidled up to Ernest.
"Hey Ernest, how have you been?" Claude asked. Ernest looked up in surprise and stood up.
"We have been perfectly fine. What brings you to this-er-place," he asked. Claude asked him if he wanted to come to a big reunion and he agreed. He managed to prise Opera off the Sake and out of the pub. They boarded the ship again and headed off. They got Expel a lot faster than when they were leaving it, on account of Leon's all new speed boost. Of course, Claude was the one flying the thing, as Leon was not old enough yet to fly one nor did he want to fly one. They transported down to Linga first, to find an explosion coming from the middle of the town and a scared Ashton running away with the bottom of his clothes on fire. Luckily no one was hurt. Precis came out of the smoke cloud full of soot and Claude walked up to them.
"Are you guys alright?" Claude asked. Precis nodded.
"Haha, just a failed experiment. So, what's up?" Precis laughed. Claude explained the reunion thing and Precis and Ashton loved the idea. They went along to Bowman's house to see if he was there. He was playing cards with Noel, who was failing miserably.
"Hey Bowman, do you want to come with us on our ship and adventure, for old time's sake? Plus, Rena and I are getting married and want to invite you guys to come," Claude said. Bowman threw his cards down and immediately started packing. Noel stood up and walked back and forth a little, not knowing what to do. Bowman gave a sigh and packed his things for him too. They went downstairs and he told Nineh what was going on.
"I will be back soon. A couple of months maybe," Bowman told his wife, who nodded, telling them to have fun. Claude brought out a phone device and gave it to Nineh.
"Type in this number and you will be able to contact Bowman at any time," Claude explained, to which she thanked him graciously. They left the shop and continued on towards Lacour, where Dias and Chisato were supposedly last seen. Unfortunately they had already moved on. They got on a ship to Herlie and just as they had barely left the ship, they heard a large thunder clap.
They turned to see what it was and it was Celine fighting some shady looking guys. Aniki and the other two were holding knives. Once they had finished with the guys, who dropped a precious object, Celine picked the object up and returned it to a young lady, who paid them some gold. Claude approached them and Celine gave him a big hug in excitement.
"Well, darlings, it's so nice to see you again," she said. Claude told her about the get together and she was delighted. She had to put a sign up, saying that her business was closed for a while. And so, they set off to find Dias and Chisato. They found them in Cross, where Dias was telling some nasty guy to leave a little girl alone. He ended it by hurting him with his blade. He turned around to see Claude and everyone; eyed them curiously and sighed. Claude went up to him and told him what they were there for.
"…I see. So you two think you're ready for that?" Dias asked.
"Yes. We are. What's the point in waiting longer for something we're ready for already?" Claude asked. Dias made a noise of contempt.
"Dias, please be alright with this. I want you to, um, you know, give me away," Rena said, shyly. Dias glared at Claude.
"To him? I want to give you to him? Huh. Sure thing," Dias said. Claude looked happy.
"…if he beats me in a duel," Dias said. Rena's face dropped and Claude got angry.
"Why?! It's not up to you anyway. Come on Rena, you can have someone else give you away…," Claude said. Rena sniffed.
"But…Dias is my older brother. The only male family I have. But I don't want Dias and Claude fighting," Rena said. Claude shouted at Dias some more, telling him that he was hurting Rena's feelings. Dias turned away and walked off.
"If you can't be a man and fight me, then you can't be the one Rena marries," Dias said. Claude got angry.
"Fine! Come back here and fight me, you jerk," Claude shouted. Dias turned around and smirked. They both got ready to fight.
"RIPPER BLAST!" Claude shouted. Dias just missed it and came back with his Chaos Sword, to which Claude jumped out of the way.
"SHOOTING STAR!" Claude shouted. This hit Dias, but did not do much damage. They battled it out for what seemed like ages.
"Wow, Claude! I didn't think you'd be any good at fighting. You were such a wimp back in high school. Get him Claude, get him! Otherwise he won't let you have Rena," Ariette shouted.
"Thanks Ari. Just the support I really need," Claude said dryly. The clanks of steel on steel sounded around the town and soon many people were watching. Claude used a number of his moves and so did Dias, but neither affected each other all that much. Unfortunately Claude tired out too quickly and Dias, noticing this, gave his all in the next swing of his blade and he hit Claude off his feet. Dias sheathed his sword and walked up to Claude.
"…You lose," Dias said. Claude got up in anger and ended up back down on his knees due to the pain in his side. Rena ran quickly to him and healed him.
"That's not fair! You have been fighting for longer than me. And if Rena wants to be with me, shouldn't she be the chooser?" Claude moaned.
"…Quiet, moron. I said you lost, I didn't say that you couldn't marry Rena," Dias said. Claude looked up in shock.
"You mean-?!" Claude said. Dias closed his eyes and then looked up at the sky.
"…I guess I could walk little Rena down the aisle. But if you so much as hurt a single hair on her head-," Dias started.
"-You'll hurt and kick my ass until I'm begging for death. I know and I won't," Claude sighed. Dias chuckled slightly. They returned to Leon's ship, on the way picking Westa up, as she was Rena's mother and needed to be at the wedding. On returning to Earth, they allowed the others time to admire the new place and then picked Claude's mother up. Claude had chosen a beautiful location in the heart of Africa, were a beautiful countryside town was settled. Numerous important people, particularly from Claude's father's comrades, attended the wedding. Claude had chosen Ashton to be his best man. Rena had chosen Precis, Ariette and Celine as her bridesmaids.
It was a beautiful ceremony and everyone started crying near the end. As Claude and Rena bent forward to kiss, Ashton whispered something and Gyoro and Ururun made happy growling noises and Ururun shot ice out of his mouth and Gyoro shot steam out of his mouth. Ice particles flew down on everyone in the church, all sparkly and pretty like. Afterwards everyone complimented Ashton and his dragon friends on his timing of the ice shower. Ashton broke down in tears at his first compliment….and he was in a constant dreamy state throughout the rest of the night. They were taken to a huge pretty ballroom where there were tables in one half of the room, while the rest was dedicated to the dance floor. Ashton stood up and made his speech. He managed to make all the women cry, as his speech was really sweet. Again, he could not believe how well this evening was going for him.
"Maybe weddings are your thing, darling," Celine said. Ashton looked surprised but then looked deep in thought.
"Hey, maybe I could become that guy who made them man and wife. Yes, it's settled," Ashton said all happily. Celine laughed.
"What's so funny?" He asked, sounding hurt.
"You? A priest? Hahahaha, don't make me laugh, darling, it hurts my stomach because I'm laughing too hard," Celine said. Ashton looked hurt and went and sat in a corner. A huge black cloud surrounding him.
Claude walked up to him and tapped him on the shoulder. Ashton turned his head around ready to attack.
"I can so be a priest! Don't laugh," Ashton shouted. Claude backed off a little.
"Err, I was just wondering if you were ok. We're starting the dance soon and I thought you'd want to be there," Claude said. Ashton pouted some more and eventually followed on. Claude and Rena got the first dance, and Ashton did his ice shower trick again. This, along with the disco ball and lowered lights, made the scene look more romantic. Claude gave Ashton a thumbs up and smiled. Ashton felt renewed in happiness. He danced a crazy little dance for a while until he realised the ceiling was on fire. He screamed a bit and Ururun shot some ice at it, getting rid of it. Ashton sighed in relief and continued to make snow; behaving himself. Soon everyone was dancing. Chisato and Dias-very reluctantly, Aniki and Celine, Opera and Ernest, Precis and Ashton, with Ururun shooting snow out too. Aniki's buddies were dancing with each other, for nothing else to do. Leon walked up to Ariette, who was looking quite sullen and asked for a dance.
Ariette accepted, thanking Leon for his kindness.
"Well, I can't just let my big sister look sad now, can I? I only wish I were taller, so that dancing isn't as hard," Leon laughed. Ariette laughed along with him. The rest of the night went beautifully, as Ariette danced with Claude and Noel and Bowman continued to stay out of it, playing cards. One could only hope they weren't playing for money, otherwise Bowman would be a very rich man. Leon made acquaintance with a number of Ronixis' old comrades. He was surprised to find that they knew of him and his works.
"You are a jewel of the universe. Are you planning on joining the Earth Federation?" One of them asked.
"Well, I would not be of much use up there, as I only design and build these new machines. I could not and will not fly one of them. I also want to look out for big sister Ariette, as she has not been feeling well for some time now," Leon replied.
"Indeed. Ever since she came back…she was once a very outgoing and happy young lady. She was voted Prom Queen, you know. Class Valedictorian and school council president…she was skilled in both academic and creative areas. But now she shows no interest in the former," another of Ronixis' comrades said. Leon nodded.
"She wanted to be a doctor or on the Earth Federation, along with Claude. Or atleast something were they could work side by side. I feel they have grown apart a bit," the first man said. Leon nodded sadly.
The rest of the evening went by without failure. The next day they decided to travel space. First they returned Westa home and then they set out to explore.
"First I think we should visit Roak. So that we can see Leon's home planet," Claude said. They could see from out of the windows that Roak was of a mixture of greens and blues.
"Wow, it's so pretty," Rena said. But Rena fell silent after that. Celine looked at her.
"Are you alright, Rena darling?" Celine asked. Rena's eyes flickered and she put her hand to her mouth and ran off towards the bathroom. Celine ran off to see if she was alright.
"What's up with her? Is she sick?" Ashton asked. Everyone murmured, wondering what was going on and Celine soon got back.
"Well. Claude darling, congratulations," Celine said. Claude look confused.
"For what? Are you being sarcastic?" Claude asked. Celine giggled.
"No, silly. You're going to be a father, darling. Rena's merely having morning sickness. You're going to have a baby," Celine giggled. Claude looked shocked.
"What?! But we…" Claude went bright red. The others laughed at him.
"You know, protection doesn't always work, even in this day and age," Ernest said, sounding amused. Claude sighed and nodded, going off to find his wife.
When they got off on Roak, Claude holding Rena's hand. Rena looked a little better, as Claude had given her some tablets. Rena had taken the news with shock and kept blushing bright red, especially when Claude was holding her hand. All around them they saw people with similar appearances to Leon: cat ears. Some even had a tail to go with it. Leon looked different; like he was sad or something.
"They…they look like I do. So this is where I originally came from?" Leon asked. Claude nodded and told Leon that, no matter what, Expel will always be there for him and so will his friends. Leon sniffled and hugged Claude's arm. Ariette walked up to Leon and held onto his hand. Roak was filled with beautiful forests and flowery fields. Animals liked to roam around and the people lived in small towns surrounded by this beauty.
They walked around for a while, taking in the serenity of the town. As they walked through, they saw all sorts off cheerful looking people with all sorts of brightly coloured hair and colourful garbs and robes. People looked at the strange new group and waved. One old woman came up to them.
"Are you Ronixis' children?" She asked. Claude nodded, as she was pointing at Ariette and himself. She smiled brightly and asked of how he was doing. Claude had to break the news to her and she looked crestfallen. The old woman wished them a pleasant life and, after giving them a beautiful and rare flower, walked off happily murmuring to herself, having met Ronixis' prodigal children. Eventually the boarded the airship again, having finished exploring it enough.
Everyone sat around and talked about Roak. Leon seemed a lot happier, knowing about his original roots. Meanwhile, Rena was feeling ill again and found refuge in the bathroom, with Claude helping as much as he could. Dias sat there, looking like he wanted to hurt Claude.
"What's the matter, Dias darling?" Celine asked. Dias growled.
"…He is making her suffer," he said. Celine hit his arm.
"Oh, come on. This is what happens to pregnant women. They go through these things. And you might end up being named uncle. 'Uncle Dias'. Sounds sweet doesn't it, darling?" Celine said. Dias looked strange, like he wanted to throw up. Aniki leaned over to Celine.
"Hey, why don't we have a child? Could be fun, whaddaya say?" Aniki asked, smiling. Celine said smack in the mouth. Aniki quickly recovered and hugged onto Celine's arm.
"Awww, come on. I was just kidding with you. Of course we'll wait until we're married," Aniki said. Celine laughed.
"Married? Who said anything about that?" Celine said, teasing him. They kept at it for a while until Celine started to chant thunder bolt at which Aniki dropped the subject.
They decided to make a business much like that of Celine's little help business.
"Ok! But don't we need a name? I mean, being called 'Claude and the others' gets on my nerves," Precis said. Everyone thought for a moment. A number of silly ideas came up and were instantly laughed at or ignored.
"How about…Crescent 16?" Ariette asked. Everyone pondered at that one and agreed. Throughout the next few months they did a whole load of jobs for people and transported people from planet to planet. They were already known for being the saviours of the universe, as the ten wise men were a big threat, and now they were known as the modern Mother Teresa. They were all having a lot of fun and even Dias cracked a smile of delight. They flew their ship off into the endless sea of stars…
END OF PART ONE
Author's note: There you have it! End of part one! Please tell me what you think by reviewing, construction criticism is accepted.
