Suggested soundtrack - "V-Pop" by Lindsey Stirling.
The sun had just gone down, and the stars were starting to shine abovehead. The island was nice and peaceful at dusk—well, it was always peaceful, because it was deserted save for the two of them, but somehow the twilight hours that faded into night was just very calming. Jade watched the last of the rich hues of sunlight fade into the ocean, turning the water from a deep red to purple to dark, dark silvery blue. Finally, Dirk broke the silence, and she turned to face him.
"You know," he said, "this is kind of a sweet and almost easy way to live."
Jade looked at him quizzically, raising a skeptical eyebrow. "You mean this whole living on the run and blowing stuff up way of life that we've got going on?" Easy wasn't quite the word she'd have used.
"Yeah," he agreed. "There's no rules to follow because we're breaking 'em all, that's the point. So like there's no need to worry about fitting in and stuff, most of the time. Kinda liberating."
Ah, she got it now. He was still only a few months into this way of life—she had never found it particularly enjoyable, but John had had a phase when he thought it was kind of nice, and she didn't begrudge Dirk his ability to take pleasure in it. After all, it was better to be able to enjoy life however it came, rather than not, right?
Jade wished she could feel like that, too, but honestly she didn't like this life that much; she wanted to live together with her friends and family and just be happy. She didn't want to go overthrowing regimes and things; that was what lot she'd drawn, not what she wanted. If given the choice, she probably would have wanted to go to technical school and learn about the applications of interstellar technology, how to build and how to manipulate them. Just imagine what she could have done, combining science with Space magic! It would have been amazing, if she were able to do it. But that was just a dream.
"I guess!" she said with a little shrug, drying off the last of the dishes and handing it to Dirk to pack. "So, what do we do now?"
Dirk tucked the plate into the bag with the rest of them and stood, stretching, and offered her a hand to get to her feet. Accepting it, Jade pulled herself upright and then kept her fingers in his, smiling slightly as he didn't pull away either. Instead, he just looked down at her a bit thoughtfully until he finally spoke.
"Well," Dirk said, "we can always keep wrecking shit. Although we should come up with a better plan than just 'wreck shit', I think."
"Yes," Jade agreed teasingly, "that probably is a good idea, yeah! Actually on that note, I think we might want to take a week or two off of doing these little hop in, hop out attack things." She drew him away from the campsite, towards the ocean, thinking it would be nice to take a little walk along the water's edge as they talked. "Especially the ones that are really far apart from each other, you know?"
Dirk frowned slightly. "Why would—oh," he said, realization dawning on him. "We wanna keep you on the down low, huh?"
"Yes, that would be good," Jade affirmed. "I don't know how many powerful Space mages there are on this planet, but I'm betting it isn't that many! It'd probably be better for us if we didn't give it away that one of us is all Spacey, at least not yet. There are only two of us, after all."
"Yeah," Dirk agreed, a little bit of a melancholy tone in his voice as he looked out to sea. "Only two of us."
Jade squeezed his hand encouragingly. "Hey! Remember what I told you earlier, okay? They're not dead, they're just ... missing, and we'll find them one day. They aren't dead, okay?" They aren't dead, she repeated to herself. They can't be dead!
"Jade." His voice was more serious than light, and she stopped walking and turned to look at him, the waves rushing in to lap at their ankles. "Maybe that helps you, but honestly, I would rather not get my hopes up. It'll be a lot easier to think they're gone and be wrong than it will to think they're okay and be wrong." He sighed then, dropping his gaze to the swirling water around their feet, and then met her eyes again, almost daring her to come up with a contradictory response.
"I understand that," she said, fumbling for the right words—he was right, in a way; it would be easier to think they were dead and then be wrong, but she didn't know if they would ever find conclusive proof for sure. The more time that passed, the more sure she was that they would never know what really happened that night. "But I don't think we're ever going to find evidence one way or another! So... I just like to think that even if you and I never see them again, they might be out there somewhere, being happy."
Dirk was silent for a few moments. Then he began walking again, so Jade guessed the topic was being dropped for now—not that she wanted to keep discussing it, honestly. The thought of dead friends was a rather sad one that she didn't care to dwell on very much.
Instead, why not talk about live friends? "Dirk," she said, swinging their joined hands between them, "what do you say we go see Jake tomorrow?"
"I say that's a fucking great idea," Dirk replied. "Hell, let's just go to a city and pretend to be normal people again for a little while. I like that we don't have to all the time, but why don't we do some fun shit? Crash a party or something."
"So our plans for tomorrow are go demolish those communication crystals outside of Lonarre, and then head to... hmm, which city should we go to? Maybe Ensypi? And we'll go see Jake, and have fun for an evening?" Jade reaffirmed, looking up at her companion for confirmation. "Because that sounds like a great plan to me!"
"Music to my ears," Dirk agreed. "Let's do this shit. Tomorrow is going to be rad."
Zap!
A jolt of burgundy magic arced through the air, hitting the ground with a small explosion that was more than enough to destroy the communication mechanisms that lay there just barely below the surface. Dirk straightened, returning to a more casual posture, and looked over at Jade, who clapped her hands and cheered, "Good job! Your aim is getting way better!"
"Thanks. I guess it just takes practice," he agreed, a small flicker of pride in the grin that crossed his face at her praise. Turning to survey the wide, rolling hills all around them, covered in grass that swayed in the wind, peaceful as could be—it would be a few minutes until the Batterwitch's troops got out here to investigate the disrupted signal and found the rather substantial damage—he nodded once, looking back at her to ask, "Well, looks like we're all done here, yeah?"
"Yup," Jade agreed, holding out her hands. "C'mere, you! We've got a evening of fun activities and no blowing stuff up to get to!"
Dirk grinned, sauntering over to place his hands in hers. "Of course, I wouldn't want to keep you waiting."
Jade laughed as she concentrated on the image of their island, the location of it in her mind and in space, and then let the world dissolve, melt away into the green brightness between places, until it reformed a second or two later into white sand and glimmering waves, tall bluffs and green trees that looked warm and homelike in the late morning light. Here was home again!
It was kind of funny, like she'd come full circle—this was the home she'd known first, and now it was the one she'd probably call home until the end. Unless something else calamitous happened, which wasn't totally unlikely given her and Dirk's current line of work, but she preferred to hope for the best!
The sea breeze picked up, ruffling her hair, and Jade smiled into the wind. "There was this one time," she said, looking out to sea with a nostalgic gleam in her eyes, "when it was just me and John. Nanna and Grandpa had gone out for a little daytrip because Grandpa wanted to show Nanna one of the tiny islands out there, but the big boat was broken and stuff so they left us here. And we got this bright idea to go to the beach! Which normally would be fine, but John got this notion in his head that he could build a sand castle by blowing wet sand into place..."
"Oh my god," Dirk snorted, even before she finished the story. "How long were you guys sitting there crying thanks to all that sand in your eyes?"
"A while," Jade laughed. "But it took even longer to get all of the sand out of my hair!"
"I can imagine," he said dryly, ruffling her hair fondly. "You used to have it really long, right?"
"Yup, it was way down here," she nodded, holding a hand near her hips. "But then it ended up needing to get trimmed anyway, so Rose fixed it up for me. I'm just glad it's finally long enough that I can tie it back out of my face again!"
Dirk nodded, that smirk she'd become so accustomed to playing across his lips. "Oh, of course. I know that that's a real problem."
Jade laughed and in response, reached up and ruffled his (much shorter) hair. "I don't know, I can sure see you wearing some ribbons and bows up here!"
"Hell yes. I could look so fucking cute, you have no idea."
"Even cuter than normal?" she teased, unclasping the brooch that held her cloak in place and shaking it out, then folding it and laying it nestled among the piles of things around their little beach shelter. "I don't know if that's possible, Dirk!"
"That's what I mean," he agreed. "You have no idea."
A few minutes later, they had both put away their traveling-slash-havoc-wreaking clothes and changed into things more fitting of people in cities, less suited to life on the run and camping out. Jade looked down at herself and the blue dress she wore, then shrugged and nodded to herself—it was good enough. She grabbed the small bag of little gifts to take to Jake's place and then steppd outside, looking for her companion. "All ready, mister cute boy?" she asked Dirk as he approached, clad in a richly embroidered orange and golden tunic. "Too bad we didn't think to ever pick up some hair ribbons for you!"
"Well, we're going out this evening," he pointed out with a roguish grin. "I'm sure we can stop by a clothing store, get some fancy shit like ribbons and bows while restocking all our usual supplies and whatnot."
Jade giggled. "Oh, of course!" she said. "I should have known. Anyway, let's go, it's been so long since we went to see Jake!"
"Like two weeks," Dirk said, but he came close enough for Jade to take his hand again, and once again the world melted away into green.
This time, when they reappeared, it was in Jake's living room. The lights were off and not even any candles were lit—sometimes there were power outages here, which is why he had a good supply of those—and the entire place was oddly quiet.
"I guess he isn't home yet," Jade said, looking around with a little bit of bewilderment. "What time is it, anyway?"
Dirk frowned, then checked the clock on the wall. "Oh, that explains it. Yeah, he won't be home for another half an hour or so. He works late every other night."
"Oh," Jade sighed. "Well, it looks like we have half an hour to spend doing nothing... and somehow I feel like going out might not be the best idea we've ever had, you know?"
"Nonsense," Dirk drawled sarcastically. "We should definitely go walking around here, especially me. There is absolutely no chance that something could go wrong."
She laughed, plopping down on the single armchair. "I guess we can just chill here then! It's too bad he only has this little place... I wonder if there's a way we can get him a few more funds so he can move out of here. It isn't a really good neighborhood, you know?"
Dirk shrugged. "I mean, we could, but then he'd have to explain where he suddenly got money to anyone curious, so... that might be harder to cover."
"I know," Jade agreed, a little downcast. "It was just a thought."
"Yeah, I know," he said, coming closer and then looking down at the chair. "Get up."
She complied, waiting for him to sit down before she settled herself again, this time squeezing in so that she was sitting with her legs across his lap and leaning against his arm—a bit awkward, but it was the easiest way to let them both sit in the solo chair. "I'm kind of tired. Weird, I'm usually not at this time of day..."
"Well, we have been doing a lot of globe hopping. Probably we're both a bit tuckered out because we're used to it being like three hours past midnight right now."
"True," she nodded, laying her head against his shoulder. "I might fall asleep on you."
"Go ahead, I'm not goin' anywhere," came the response, and she closed her eyes, letting her mind drift...
What seemed like hardly a few seconds later, Jade opened her eyes to see a blurry Jake standing in front of the armchair, a look of surprised delight on his face. "—amazing to see you both!" he was saying.
Jade bounded up and flung her arms around him, laughing as he scooped her up off the ground and twirled her around once, twice, thrice before he set her down again. "I've missed you so much!" she exclaimed, leaning her forehead against his, taking in the brilliant smile he gave her in response.
Dirk stood, too, and gave Jake a solid bro-fist or whatever they called it as Jade stepped back, still beaming. "Good to see you too," he said with a little quirk of a grin.
"What brings you two to this neck of the woods this evening?" Jake asks, still squeezing both of their hands tightly and looking on with wonder.
"We wanted to come see you, of course!" Jade giggled, hugging him again. "Oh, oh, and we brought—where did I leave it?—oh! There it is," she whirled around, looking all over the room before grabbing the bag of little goodies. "Here's some things for you! I made sure to get some more tea like we got last time over in Sevoir, the kind with the jasmine that you really liked!"
Jake's eyes widened as she pulled out the boxes of tea, then the few books, and finally the extra communicator. "Good gracious! All of this for me?"
"Yep. Pretty nice haul, huh?" Dirk said with a grin, surveying their collection proudly.
"I'd say!"
"Wanna make some of this tea?" Jade suggested, still beaming—oh, she loved when they came to see Jake, she'd missed him so much and she never really even knew how much he meant to her until she saw him again! "We can sit around and catch up!"
"I would love that," Jake agreed warmly, wrapping his arm around her shoulders for a quick hug. "Thank you both!"
The three of them sat together for several hours, drinking their afternoon tea together as they talked and swapped stories. Jake expressed his concern for both of their safety and Jade and Dirk assured him that they would be careful, they exchanged laughter and smiles, and all in all had a lovely evening. Finally, though, it drew to a close—Jake had work in the early morning, and neither Dirk or Jade wanted to keep him up terribly late, so they promised to come by again soon and said their farewells, and then after she finally, finally finally managed to let go of Jake, Jade stepped back and took Dirk's hand and once again let the world dissolve.
This time, when they reappeared, it was in a moderately sized city a ways west of the Imperial City, one called Ensypi. Together they exited the narrow alleyway they'd materialized in, Jade looked around at the many bright, bright lights all around, advertising stores and clubs and restaurants and all sorts of lovely places that they could visit, then up at Dirk.
"Where to first?" she asked, looping her arm through his. "I vote we just go have fun! One of those dance clubs or something. And we can get some food in there too! Maybe... how about that one!" she pointed to a place not too far down the street that looked pretty nice—it had a relatively well lit front and was well-decorated too.
Dirk considered for a moment, then shrugged and nodded. "Sure, why the hell not. I haven't been to one of those in almost a year, though—I only ever went in the first place whenever Rox dragged me along. And food first."
"I haven't been in even longer than you haven't," Jade smiled. The last time she had gone out to a place like this downtown entertainment district had been before they fled on the run after Rose's mother died, so... over two years. Wow. Time sure flies when you, uh... well, that statement wasn't really applicable. She wouldn't exactly call the last few years 'having fun'. "Think of it this way! We're two robotics-loving nerds trying to be social."
"Excuse you, I'm a fucking cool as ice robot lover," Dirk interjected. "With imaginary hair bows and everything."
"Alright, but answer me this!" Jade countered, skipping around so that she could seize his hands and walk backwards, trusting that he wouldn't let her trip and fall or anything. "Who told you that you can't be cool and a nerd at the same time? Because that buster was wrong!" she laughed, casting a quick look down to her feet and then pulling Dirk around in a circle, laughing still. Oh, this was wonderful! They hadn't been here long at all but this atmosphere of the bright and happy night was already getting to her—when was the last time she did things that most seventeen year old girls did, anyway? It was nice to take an evening and visit family and pretend things were okay.
"Fair point," he grinned in response, then dropped her hands to gallantly sweep open the door of the restaurant-club combo that they were headed for. Jade giggled at him as she entered and he followed, the two of them walking to a table. It lit up as they approached and sat, and the menu options popped up on the holoscreen in the center as Jade spun around in her hoverchair, giggling. They placed their orders and settled in to wait, listening to the music for a few moments. The dance floor was off to the side, and there was a good crowd of silhouettes moving to the electronic beat; Jade watched for a few minutes before she turned back to Dirk.
"So," she said, leaning forward and placing her arms on the clear glass surface, "what do you think? Today's been pretty good, right?"
Mirroring her pose somewhat, Dirk nodded. "Yeah. We should do shit like this more often, maybe. I mean, coming out for dinner was a nice idea, and we're financially sound enough that it's doable, so hey, why not."
They were financially sound because Jade was kind of good at vanishing small piles of gold from the Batterwitch's inventories, but shh, no one had to know that! "Yes! We should. They're like little friend dates!"
Just then, the table lit up as their serverbot approached, wordlessly placing the two trays of food on the table. "Will that be all?" it asked.
"Yup!" Jade nodded, Dirk echoing her words. The bot gave a nod in affirmation and then retreated, both of them watching it go, wobbling a little bit on its upright axis as it floated away.
"I think it'd work a little better if they used a smaller gyroscope in the hoverplate core, near the bottom," Dirk commented. "They overcompensated, so it's still shaky."
"Either that," Jade tapped her finger against her chin, her eyes narrowed in thought at the retreating bot's back, "or they need to recalibrate the stabilizers. That's more likely than a oversized gyroscope, if you ask me!"
"True," he agreed. "Human error is at fault in both cases, but I think you're right. Stabilizer calibration is more common than gyroscope issues, but all the same looking at the others, I don't notice the same kind of wobble. That makes me think it's less of neglect of routine maintenance, and more of a particular issue with this one, but you could be right."
"Hmm, that's a good point," Jade conceded. "I hadn't really looked at the others!"
They lapsed into a comfortable, companionable silence, each eating their food. Jade let her gaze wander to the dance floor again, all aglow in a wash of colored lights. The music playing was a song she'd never heard before, but the beat sure was catchy! She caught herself tapping her foot in time under the table, and then nudged Dirk's foot, giggling. He raised an eyebrow across the table at her and then nudged her leg right back.
A few minutes passed in this fashion, with idle conversation striking up now and then. Mostly they just ate and sat together, not needing the words too much. Jade listened to the music and the people around them, just content to observe and enjoy the sensations of being around people and being normal once again. She hadn't realized how much she missed being around ... around anyone, really; she just hated being alone. Being with Dirk was nice—amazing, even; he was definitely one of her best friends ever, on the same level as Dave and Rose, probably, and she loved him—but she craved company sometimes. So this was very welcome! Especially after an evening spent with Jake; she was glad for tonight. Tonight was wonderful, and she wouldn't have traded it for anything.
Jade's gaze drifted to the dancers again, and she smiled as she idly tapped her fingers against the tabletop. The song playing was drawing to a close as she finished her food, and the next one began. It was a slower one, a bit familiar—she had heard it somewhere, but she couldn't quite place it.
"You wanna dance or something?" Dirk asked, following her gaze. "Because I mean, I'd be willing to give it a shot but I don't think that I'd be any good."
"Well, me neither," she laughed. "Sure, let's do it! Why not. After all, no one knows us, and we probably won't be back here too soon anyway!"
"So if we make total fools of ourselves, we'll be able to pretend it never happened, is that what you're saying?" he laughed, but he stood too, dusting off his hands and then holding one out to her. Jade laced her fingers with his and then giggled as he pulled her off the chair, both of them walking to the dance floor. Really, though, this song was starting to bother her—she'd heard it before! She was sure of it!
It wasn't until it hit the chorus and she and Dirk were swaying in each other's arms amid the throng that she realized, the memory hitting her like a ton of bricks. She knew this song, she knew that voice...
"Jade?" Dirk asked, because she'd stopped moving, but she barely could hear him over the sudden ringing in her ears.
"I—uh, I think I need to sit down," she heard herself gasp out as if from a long distance, her mind not on that at all because it was like she was sitting in the woods a year ago all over again, next to the tent with Dave as he played her the newest song he'd written.
This was Dave's song.
Dave couldn't have released a song here if he was dead. That meant... that meant he couldn't be dead, he was alive somewhere and that confirmation, that assurance that what she'd wished for was true, was something beyond what she'd hoped for.
She had to find him.
But how?
AN: Hahahhaahahaaa... okay I have no excuses, I'm really sorry. I may as well give up on a consistent update schedule, apparently. I don't know why it's just not happening these days - I do have a much busier school schedule this semester, which might have something to do with it. Sorry, guys! D: I will try to update more frequently ;n;
That said, I am now going to indulge in a shameless self-promo and ask you guys to also check out my story Twilight and Shadow! It's a Zelda AU (DaveJade as main pairing) and is friendly if you have never played the games c: so give it a read, maybe, if you want! I swear I'll update that soon too haha!
I don't really know why I picked that one song for the suggested soundtrack, but it was what I was listening to while writing the latter half of this chapter, so that's sort of the mood for the restaurant, I guess. Either way, it's a neat song!
Hm... was there anything else I wanted to tell you? If there was I forgot. Thanks for reading and thanks for reviewing!
