Rose put her hand on Roxy's shoulder. "We can't do anything to help him now." She said sadly.
Roxy wiped away the tears in her eyes. "Yeah, I know." She stood up and pulled her scarf over her shoulder. The only thing left to do now was go up. Roxy nodded her head and lead the other four people up the stairs to their right. They were slow on their way up, Rose was helping Bill again. The stairs led to a second hallway, one that looked dark and menacing. It twisted and writhed like a snake, and there were several other halls leading to different direction.
They slowly wandered down the main hallway, not taking any of the side paths in fear of getting lost. Roxy and Harley took the lead, while Rose and Jade took turns helping Bill. Every few minutes they had to stop, which frustrated Roxy to no end. They had to reach the top. Eridan still hadn't come back, and Roxy kept looking behind them with worry. Was he still fighting with Feferi?
There was a loud crash from ahead of them that jarred Roxy from her thoughts. She and the rest of the group stopped and watched the hallway in front of them wearily. The lights flickered suddenly, and then a hulking looking drone came out of one of the side halls.
It hovered in front of them for a few moments before turning to look at them. Before it's robotic eyes could finish narrowing Harley had her rifle to her shoulder and was pulling the trigger. The top of it's head was blown clean off, revealing red circuitry. It started to spaz, as if in some sort of death fit, and while it was jerking around one of it's arm rockets went off.
Roxy could only watch with horror as the rocket careened down the hall toward them, until it suddenly took a sharp upward turn and exploded on the ceiling. She was tossed to her feet, her head reeling. Roxy tried to blink, tried to figure out how everyone else was, but she was to shocked. There was a loud ringing in the hall, or was it just in her ears?
"Mom?" She asked blankly, before something struck her in the back of the head and everything went dark.
A hundred miles away Dirk awoke with a start. Someone was shaking his arm.
"Roxy?" He asked, reaching out for her. He had another nightmare, this one much more vivid than the last. She was running away from him and he couldn't catch her. He could only scream as she died in front of him...
"No little man, it's me." Dave replied, pulling his hand back.
Dirk shook the last of his sleepiness away to stare at his dad. He quickly noticed that Dave was looking grim, and that Roxy wasn't in the room with them. After another moment he remembered that he had fallen asleep before she had come to bed.
"What's wrong?" Dirk asked with a yawn.
Dave frowned, as if trying to think of a delicate way to say it. "Roxy's gone." Was all he managed.
Dirk sat straight up. "Gone? She left? How? When? She didn't go to the- without you? Without telling me?" He let the words tumble out without stopping. Dirk's heart was beating rapidly, and his throat constricted. This could not be happening. There was just no way she was gone. Dirk looked at his father's sad expression and suddenly the truth hit him like a ton of bricks.
And he was mad.
Roxy betrayed him. She was doing it for a good reason, but she had gone against what he wanted. He clenched his fists and swung out of the bed surprising Dave with his ferocity. Dirk was mad, but quickly his fear and worry won out. There was only one option at this point.
"Well, let's go after her." Dirk said quickly.
Dave smiled at him, despite what had happened. "I was waiting for you to say that."
When Roxy woke up everything was dark. She blinked her eyes a few times, but the world around her remained shapeless and black. Then the pain hit her. A deep throbbing in the back of her head, a dull ringing in her ears. She was laying down on something cold and hard, and her muscles felt stiff.
She let out a groan as she tried to sit up. Her head continued to pound, but it wasn't nearly as bad as any of the hangovers she had had before. Roxy ran a hand through her hair and was surprised to find there was something wet. She didn't have to have light to know she was bleeding.
"Roxy?" It was Rose, her voice calling clearly from somewhere in the darkness. Then she was kneeling next to Roxy, pulling her daughter in a warm embrace.
"Mom?" Roxy asked, hugging her back. "What happened? Is everyone okay?"
"Yes, when the drone launched the rocket it collapsed part of the roof. You got hit in the head with a bit of debris and got knocked out, but the rest of us were just a little surprised. We ran back down the hall and hid in one of the empty rooms to wait for you to wake up." Her mother explained quickly.
"Is she awake?" Roxy could hear Jade from somewhere else in the room. She looked around and now that her eyes were getting used to the gloom she could see more. Jade, Bill, and Harley were standing a few feet away, all of them standing on their own now. The rest of the room was small, a few cabinets laid around the edges, knocked over and empty. Roxy was laying on some sort of table.
"How long was I out? Where's my gun?" Roxy realized quickly, patting down her sides for her weapon.
"We forgot the gun when we were getting you out of there, but don't worry, I grabbed something better." Harley said, in an almost malicious voice. She pulled out a drone arm, the side with the machine gun. "I figured out how to work it, by connecting a few of the wires. Almost blew my own leg off but it was worth it." she chuckled.
"You were asleep for a few hours." Jade added.
Roxy groaned again. A few hours? There was no way she would get back in time. No way Dirk wasn't awake now anyway.
"We need to get back up top, see if we can find a way off this damned floating cruise ship." Roxy said, swinging off the table. The throbbing in her head had already subsided, like it never wanted to bother her in the first place.
"You might want this." Bill said, handing her the rifle Harley had been using.
"Thanks." She replied curtly. Roxy took the rifle and looked at her party. All of them were frightened, even Roxy, but they were all determined. Bill was fixing his shirt compulsively. Jade was clenching her fists, her eyes glinting in the dark. Harley was making some final tweeks to the drone arm. Rose was staring at Roxy, her eyes full of pride and her smile serene. "Let's go."
Rose lead the way back to the main hallway, peeking around the corner to make sure there were no drones. She waved the rest of the group on, and took off running. Up ahead there was a patch of sunlight spilling in from the broken part of the ceiling. Roxy picked her way through the debris, trying to find her gun. To her displeasure, she couldn't find it anywhere. Just as she was about to give up she heard Jade call out from a few feet away.
"Hey! The gun!" She said, pulling it out from underneath a broken pipe.
"Great, now three of us are armed." Rose smiled, allowing Jade to keep it. Harley shifted her arm and snickered.
Before anyone could move there was a thunderous roar from above them and the small patch of light went out. Roxy looked up in surprise and had to bite back a scream. A white dragon circled the air above them, looking down into the hole in the craft. It opened its large jaws, and instead of another roar a jet of fire rained down on them.
The humans quickly scrambled out of the way and further down the hall. Roxy had to stop and put out her skirt since she was the closest to the hole when the fire came through. She patted it out with a screech, running backwards to keep the hole in her sights. There was a loud crash as the Dragon landed, and it stuck a great white claw into the hole, feeling around for them.
Roxy lifted her gun and shot it, a bit of teal blood spraying the ground. It roared and withdrew the claw.
"Roxy, lets go!" Rose said, pulling on Roxy's shirt. They were only a few feet from the door, but suddenly Roxy was having second thoughts. Did they really want to go out there? She hadn't heard anything from the condescension's fight since she woke up, and now there was a dragon lusus flying around. Before she could point that out Bill was pushing the door open and sunlight was once again spilling into the narrow hall. Roxy carefully followed them out, her gun still held at the ready.
They were in a slender hallway, but they were in the open air at least. On either end was a set of stairs, leading up to the flight deck. With a boost from Bill Roxy peeked around the ship. Roxy gulped. The entire area was clear, nothing to hide behind. Then she turned and looked at the back of the ship. There was a huge guard tower, and underneath it a regal looking red throne. Even at this distance Roxy could see magenta blood on it. Other than that there was no sign of the battle she heard before she was knocked out. No sign of Feferi or Eridan or even their target.
There was a loud screech from behind her and Roxy turned again. The dragon was thrashing about, sticking it's snout into the hole and trying to get in. There was a burst of flames that filled the entire hall where they had just been. Maybe it was a good thing they got out of there.
Roxy was lowered back down and looked at the rest of the group. Jade and Harley were looking murderous, holding their weapons at the ready while Rose and Bill were standing close together, holding hands.
"Is that witch up there?" Jade asked, barely concealing her blood lust. Roxy shook her head and put her finger over her lips.
"Just the dragon. We have to be careful." Roxy whispered back. She and Jade climbed one end of the stairs, while Harley went up the other side. She raised her arm to give them the signal, while trying to aim the rifle with one hand. The dragon twisted it's snout in the ship one last time before stopping suddenly. It's huge eye swiveled and looked straight at Roxy.
"Fire!" Roxy shouted, swishing her arm down. She quickly pulled her own rifle up and pulled the trigger. Her own shot was lost in the sound of Jade's pistol and the rat-a-tat-tat of Harley's machine gun. The dragon lusus roared in fury, swinging its head back and forth and spewing hot flames from it's mouth in every direction. The girls ducked back down in fear.
When Roxy peeked back up it was staring at her with one of it's eyes missing, blood splattering across the deck of the ship. Before it could move there was another explosion from behind it, and a small red ship zoomed overhead.
The dragon landed on the deck with a crash, its white tongue flopping out. The ship whizzed back around, lowering itself unto the deck. Roxy stared at it in wonder, when a hatch opened and two figures jumped out. Before she could even think she was sprinting forward, tears in her eyes.
Dirk caught her in his arms, spinning her around and crying just as much as she was.
"I'm so sorry." Roxy sobbed, taking his face in her hands. He looked hurt, and she never meant to do that to him.
He wiped his eyes, trying not to notice the dried blood in her hair. "Never do that again." He whispered, kissing her full on the lips.
She was lost in bliss for almost a full two seconds before the ship's engine blew up.
