1988, sur un train Thaïlandais
Heavy footfalls fights with the rushing wind in Polnareff's ears. His heart spurs him faster and faster forward.
This cocky bastard, it's time to end him!
Polnareff could see the front of the train rapidly approaching as he jumps another gap between the cars. Just as he runs the span of the next cabin, he hears some shrieks of women from below him.
"Chariot!" His Stand bursts from his arm and stabs the roof of the car below him, cutting out a near perfect circle. Polnareff then jumps slightly and slams his weight onto the circle, causing him to fall through and land inside the cabin. He lands into a kneel, and sees that there are female attendants on both sides of him, having apparently landed in their crew room.
Two are cowering behind Polnareff, towards the back of the train, while one is being held by a horrifying figure in robes. Before Polnareff can move, the man grabs the attendant and pulls a knife to her throat. The hostage woman spouts a flood of words in Thai through tears, while the man digs the tip of the blade in slightly.
"Oh, Polnareff, you found me so soon. These women haven't even had their time to fall in love with me." The man licks his lips, and Polnareff gags in revulsion at the sight of him. He has a tan complexion, a deformed and bald head, nearly no teeth in his mouth, and of course…
Two right hands.
"I'll kill you, you sick monster!" Polnareff readies Chariot's rapier, but the man simply cackles and digs the blade in deeper. The woman bloodcurdlingly screams in pain, and blood runs below her uniform's neckline.
"I wouldn't get any closer if I were you."
"You coward! Without your Stand here, you're just gonna take hostages?"
"Oh, Polnareff. Do you think I would really face you and your Stand alone? You are just as much a foolhardy, cocky, and arrogant bastard as DIO said!" Polnareff clenches his hand, but before he can respond he hears another scream, this time behind him. Turning, he sees one of the women standing in front of the door, as if she had tried to open it to flee. However, her knees are quivering, and Polnareff notices that the top of her hand had been slashed. She faints and falls onto the other woman, and he spots the blood spatter on the door, just above the shining brass door handle.
"Oh, did she spoil the surprise?" Polnareff ducks below the height line of the windows, just as another swipe of an invisible blade nicks his shoulder.
Damn, how did his Stand get here already? As long as I can lay low, I can wait to see his Stand as it jumps from one window to anoth-
Before he can finish the thought, he feels a blade probe at the nape of his neck. His eyes frantically scan each window, before seeing the shine of the door handle.
"Found him, Polnareff? Now, I'm such a nice guy, the perfect son. So I'll let you live a little longer." Polnareff tries to rise up to his feet, but a hand grips his neck, pushing it into the blade and drawing a little blood. "If you try to run or attack me, I'll kill you and everyone in this cabin. Now turn around slowly, Polnareff."
"Y-you…" Polnareff follows the pull of the hand as he turns, and as he faces the man with two right hands, he feels the blade temporarily disappear before it returns to his neck.
This asshole moved his Stand…it could be in any one of these windows. I can't break all these windows at once…I'm not that fast.
"Now, Polnareff, you can have a front row seat to see me enjoy this woman I found all lonely like…" The man reaches down to tear at the woman's clothes, but before he can do much a voice shouts from the back of the room.
"Polnareff!" A loud thunk accompanies Joseph's voice as he kicks down the door. With one fluid dive, he tackles Polnareff down and extends out Hermit Purple, shattering all the glass of each of the windows. Most of it flies harmlessly out of the cabin, but a few shards are scattered randomly around the room.
"You think that will stop me! You can't catch my Hanged Man, you imbeciles!" Polnareff grits his teeth and tries to scan the scattered glass laying around the room. Just as he catches sight of the Stand, it zips away to another random piece of glass. Joseph, too, seems to have some trouble tracking it, but he simply chuckles to himself and straightens himself into a resolute stance.
"Hey, Quasimodo. What do I call you?"
"J. Geil, you senile bastard. You begging to die?"
"Oh, no. I'd just like to put a name to that ugly mug of yours." Joseph smiles and nudges Polnareff with his elbow. "Now watch closely Polnareff." The old man clenches his prosthetic hand, and something begins to ooze out of his right knuckle. Polnareff could swear it smelt of soap.
"You can't even keep up with my Stand, how do you expect to save anyone here?"
He's got something planned, alright. But as usual, the old geezer makes us have to improvise.
"A friend of mine used to bend light, I figured I could give it a shot." Joseph rubs his gloved hands together and as he spreads them, a thin membrane forms between them. "Here's a Zeppeli special, Bubble Launcher!" A gout of bubbles jet forth from the membrane, and they smash into the man's hand, knocking the knife out of his hands and through the door behind him. Polnareff marvels at the bubbles floating extremely still in the air around the room.
So this is more of that Hamon magic he can do…
J. Geil throws the lady to the ground in frustration, and whips out a rusted handgun he had tucked away in his robe. At the same time, Polnareff feels a blade about to dig into his shoulder.
"Polnareff, jump and block it!"
Block which one, you senile bastard?
In a frenzied rush, Polnareff makes a short leap and extends Chariot's rapier in front of him. J. Geil fires, and Chariot easily swats the bullet away before Polnareff can land. Just before his feet touch the floor, Hermit Purple once again sweeps all the glass into a pile by the far corner of the cabin.
We did this before, Mr. Joestar. It's just a matter of time before he just shoots the girl…
"Aha! Polnareff, get it!" Joseph points at one of the bubbles floating in the room, and sure enough Polnareff sees Hanged Man rearing up to stab Polnareff's back again.
"It'll just move!"
"Let it!" Joseph snaps his fingers, and all but one bubble pops: the one right by Polnareff's arm. Gritting his teeth once again, Polnareff catches sight of the shaft of light rushing toward the bubble, and thrusts with Chariot's rapier to intercept it.
"Ggrah!" J. Geil howls in pain as blood spurts from his hand, and he drops the pistol on the ground. Joseph makes a pointing gesture at him, and the bubble by Polnareff's arm contorts and flings itself right at the deformed man's chest and slams him into the door behind him.
"Get him, Polnareff." J. Geil desperately paws at the door behind him, but Joseph pins both his hands to the wall with Hermit Purple.
"You…you sick freak. You try and toy with us, you rape and kill young girls, and despite you being such an ugly, despicable monster you think you can run away?" Polnareff stomps his feet as he approaches J. Geil, who is struggling like an animal in a trap against the wall. "You honorless, disgusting piece of shit. Prepare to feel the sharpness of all the pain you've caused in your life. And finally, in the end, the last stab won't be from me. That one is from Sherry."
And with one step forward, Chariot rains steel into J. Geil's back, leaving nearly no spot with untouched, before finally landing the killing blow right into the back of his head.
Tears well up in Polnareff's eyes as the body sinks limp to the floor.
I did it…Sherry. I…I did it.
1988, 43 Days to save Holly
Joseph steps into the lounge cabin, only to find the back half of it blown off. Kakyoin and Avdol are sitting back in their seats, Avdol drinking some freshly made tea and Kakyoin once again reading. Joseph's only go wide for a moment, but upon seeing the calmness of his friends he calms down and speaks up.
"We should move to our room. We have some things to talk about, and I don't need half of the Thai jungle to eavesdrop." Avdol turns and squints at Joseph, noticing the man is alone in the doorway.
"Is Polnareff okay? I assume you didn't have an easy time as we did."
"He's fine, but…" Joseph looks at the floor gravely, "He got his revenge. He's just been staring at the ceiling in his bunk." Kakyoin closes his book and stands up, turning to face Joseph.
"I understand Mr. Joestar. Let's go, Avdol."
Time passes…
Joseph peers through the broken glass in their cabin door. Polnareff is still motionless in his bunk, hands behind his head as he blankly stares at the ceiling.
I know, Polnareff. I know.
He pulls on the handle without knocking, and both Avdol and Kakyoin follow him into the room. Kakyoin leans against the window frame, casting his glance out at the jungle outside. Avdol sits on the bed opposite Polnareff, and Joseph stands in the center of the room.
"Polnareff."
"What?"
"There's a lot to do. Let's stay focused."
"There's nothing for me to do. I got my revenge. I'm out. The rest of this journey is yours." Avdol closes his eyes and tightens his fists, but Joseph raises a hand to calm him.
"I know how it feels Polnareff."
"Like hell, old geezer."
"Let me guess then, to see if I'm right."
"Fuck you, Joestar. You don't anything."
"It's empty." Polnareff grips the back of his head tight, and turns to face the wall away from Joseph. "You thought it'd be joy. Relief. Vigor, pride, honor. But it's hollow, isn't it?" Polnareff sits straight up, tears in his eyes, and wordlessly stares at Joseph.
"Killing that freak doesn't bring her back. That's why it's empty."
"Chariot!" Polnareff lunges at Joseph's neck, tears streaming down his cheeks and curling their way into his lips. The blade stops short as Polnareff shouts "Shut up! I got revenge! That's all I wanted!"
"Polnareff." Joseph unflinchingly stands still, pointing his words as sharp as Chariot's rapier. "You lived your whole life since then to try and bring her back with revenge. And now, your purpose is gone. You achieved your goal, but all you got was revenge. What now, Polnareff?" The silver haired man loses the fire in his eyes, and his limbs begin to quiver.
"I…"
"You don't want to live? Coward." Polnareff's eyes flare up once more.
"What did you say?" He goes to lunge at Joseph with a fist, but Joseph kicks him square in the chest, knocking him onto the ground.
"You're a coward, Polnareff. Your sister isn't your only family, y'know." Kakyoin and Avdol stand up, and walk up to stand next to Joseph.
"Yeah, Polnareff. You might be an immature French loon, but you're family." Avdol clicks his tongue and outstretches his hand.
"C'mon Polnareff. You can't leave me on the road with these two fogeys." Kakyoin laughs, and also stretches his hand toward Polnareff.
"There's a lot to do, Polnareff. Let's all fight DIO together, no more going at things alone." Just as Joseph reaches his hand out, Polnareff sniffles and wipes his eyes of tears.
"I…Thank you." He takes Avdol's and Kakyoin's hands to help him up, and once standing he takes Joseph's hand in a firm handshake. Avdol puts his hands on Polnareff's shoulder, as does Kakyoin.
"I'm just glad my grandson didn't see you bawling like that!" Joseph breaks the tension with bawdy laughter, and smacks his torso with his hand in between laughs. Polnareff looks at him in disappointment, and breaks off the handshake to sit back on his bed. Avdol shakes his head and Kakyoin returns to the window, "Way to ruin a moment, Mr. Joestar."
"Anyway, let's plan our next move, people." Joseph puts on a confident smile and starts to take out a map he bought at the train station.
Polnareff. You don't have to go through it alone. All we have to do is meet up with Jotaro again, and…he won't be alone either. I won't let me my family suffer alone again.
END OF INTERLUDE 5