Chapter 20: Old Friends

The group was effervescent with joy. Chaos reigned over Ember Island, and presumably the entire world. Jet had done what they had asked: killed Tony Stonk, and with him, the entire economy. The streets were littered with the Unemployed; riots, disease, and famine were rampant. Ember Island's soup kitchens were over-full, and the Employment Office had shut down entirely. What was the use when there was no employment? Dust blew in over our lovely protagonists, as they gazed into the street that not a minute ago had been teeming with happy, well-fed citizens. Now it was derelict. The haggard Unemployed wandered in long lines, through the burnt-out buildings. The sky shone with weak sunlight overhead; not enough to warm the poorhouses, though. Not enough to warm the sick and dying.

"Well, it's warm enough for me, cause I'm so hot!" Jet said flamboyantly, dropping Tony Stonk's body at the feet of his fake friends. They cried out with happiness at seeing the body of a dead man.

"Jet, you did it! You murdered Tony Stonk and destroyed the entire economy!" Katara squealed.

"I did it for your fine ass, babe." Jet smiled, putting a lanky arm around Katara. Slapping his hand, Katara stepped away.

"Jet, you know we're broken up!" Their quiet squabbling was the only noise in the street, aside from the Unemployed - they crouched of Tony's limp body, patting it down for money or anything that could be sold. A wizened old woman muttered,

"Ah, his pretty watch! I can get maybe three, four shillings for this! I'll be able to feed my 8 children tonight, even if it's only gruel…"

"Beat it, old-timer!" Jet spat. "That watch is a Rolex, mine by right, as his murderer!"

The woman took his hand.

"Please, my dear boy, if I can't have this, I'll need to send my 5th son to work in the mines, like his brothers! Alas, my husband died not 30 seconds ago in a mine collapse… We've been struggling to get by ever since! Just the watch, please!"

Jet shrugged. "Just get a job, lady. Honest work - just reward!"

She cast her face down, to the ground, drawing her grey, threadbare hood over her dark, Unemployed eyes. Shuffling off to rejoin the lines of the Unemployed, she made some gesture that Jet didn't understand.

"Yeah, whatever, lady! Keep on walking!" Jet shouted after her. "Man, she was such a bitch, huh guys? …..Guys?" But his friends were gone.

As they crawled into the very back of the cave, the group (minus Jet) breathed a sigh of relief.

"I don't feel exactly right about ditching Jet, and leaving him with the unemployed, but it had to be done," Kakyoin sighed, scrunching up his legs to fit better under the low ceiling of the cave. Water dripped from the stalactites, pooling on the cold ground. But unpleasant as it was, the Unemployed hadn't found it yet, meaning it was safe, and free of vagrants. Our lovely protagonists had taken refuge in a cave.

Now. What to do next.

"I think we should get the hell out of this damn island," Jotaro grumbled from under his regular hat. Hadn't he had a straw hat before?

"Hold up gamers," Aang intoned quietly "where is the most boggers boi, my homie, Appa? The god gamer himself? The…" he trailed off, seeing the guilty looks of his friends. None of them would make eye contact with the ex-avatar.

"Guys? Come on, someone talk to me! Where's Appa?!" Aang's gray eyes filled with tears of worry, thinking of his oldest brother, Appa. Appa, who had comforted him when he was sad, and who had always been with him. Appa, who had gone under the ice with Aang, who was the one Aang loved most in the world, who had saved Aang and his friends from countless dangers. Appa.

The only noise was the dripping of water. Katara sighed, sweating profusely with shame.

"Aang. me and Kakyoin saw a mob of the Unemployed come by. They… they've taken Appa. I'm so sorry, he's gone." Katara burst into tears. Standing up quickly, Aang grabbed his staff.

"Aang, where are you going? The Unemployed are out there!" Kakyoin shouted, grabbing Aang by the wrist. Aang shook him off.

"I'm going to get Appa back! I don't care if you're coming with me!"

"Aang… you can't get him back," Kakyoin said, his voice shaking slightly.

"He wasn't just taken, Aang, he was sniped from miles away. We saw them take him down. First he was… he was, sniped, they must have been miles away. Then a group of them, the Unemployed, swarmed Appa. He… he fought back, but he was losing blood. And, they had swords and guns. They slit his throat, and he was down. Appa was also shot several times…"

"Did...did he suffer much?"

"Yes, Aang, I'm afraid he did. I couldn't watch, it was awful. But then I looked back, though the scene hadn't changed much."

Aang crumpled to the ground, utterly defeated, like a gamer with no gamer fuel, or perhaps like a long lake. He mumbled something. Putting a comforting hand on his shoulder, Katara put a blanket over Aang.

"Aang… if it'll make you feel better, we'll have a funeral. He'll be honored the tyrant and friend he was."

Kakyoin then put a comforting hand on Katara's shoulder, putting a blanket over her.

"Actually, Katara…. About that." He clapped his hands together, trying to psyche himself up for what he was about to tell her and Aang.

"There is nothing left of the carcass… they butchered him right there on the spot. They were all soon covered in thick, dark bison blood. They skinned him, then they auctioned off the raw, dripping flesh. People are starving. I bet he's being eaten for dinner right now, as we speak. His pelt was also washed and made into little coats for the children. His horns were made into weapons, and his bones were kept for stewing. There's nothing left of him. We all mourn with you Aang, it's been an awful shock. We all knew this would be a dangerous outing, to defeat Robert, but… even I never thought Appa would come to harm. None of us could have predicted this. No one knew it was going to happen."

Jotaro then put a comforting hand on Kakyoin's shoulder, putting a blanket over him. Jotaro's theme began to play very epically, filling the Gaang with hope that they might yet be able to save Appa, or that he somehow wasn't dead.

"Actually, Kakyoin… I was 100% aware of what was happening to Appa… some people might even say that I knew it would happen before it happened." Jotaro's operatic voice filled the tiny cave. With wide eyes, Kakyoin looked at him in shock.

"Jotaro, are you saying you have premonitions? That's amazing! It could really help with-" Kakyoin was abruptly cut off.

"Kakyoin… I meant it more as in, how do I say this… Some people might even say that I had a hand in what happened to Appa? Some people might put it as, 'Jotaro sold Appa to the nice people because they offered him a hat that was the same as his old hat, which he really wanted back, so he could feel like himself again, so he willingly sold Appa to them, not knowing what they would do with him,'" Jotaro said, with a voice that got quieter and quieter as he sensed his friends growing shock and then anger.

Silence filled the cave. Jotaro adjusted his hat to hide from the angry stares of his compatriots.

"Listen…" Jotaro said, floundering for words that would make everything okay. Running through all the apologies he knew, he settled on, "No ever said Jotaro Kujo was a nice guy. When the universe messes with me, I mess with it. When an asshole takes my hat from me, I sell some weird kids' pets to some homeless people to get a new hat. Sorry not sorry, but that's just who I am. Take it or leave it."

Joseph then put a comforting hand on Jotaro's shoulder, putting a blanket over him.

"And I'm sorry I wasn't there for you in Japan and had no father figure and no support. I'm sorry I was too busy getting this six figure salary along with my million dollar business. I should have been there for you, instead of being in Vegas with all these hot babes all time! Namely, my wife. Suzie Q. Suzanne Quatro. Susan Question. And Tomoko Higashkata- no just Suzan. My lawfully wedded wife whom I love more than myself.

"And because I was so busy having such a sexy lady with me 24/7, I wasn't there to support my daughter, Holly, as she was abandoned by that Jazz musician, and clearly she never got over him because she denies that he's left her.

"And I'm sorry, because that clearly messed you up a whole lot, Jotaro, since you've got a bad relationship with your mother. And Holly is obviously trying to fit in with Japanese society, hence her changing her name to Sako, and acting all cutesy, because that's her idea of what Japanese women act like. Of course that's totally based on problematic stereotypes, and you, Jotaro, insult her because you're trying to get her to break this facade and be a reliable mother, because when it comes down to it, you just want a stable mother. Which you don't have, because I've been living the life in good old America, with my rich house and hot wife. Sorry!"

If possible, the silence in the cave was even more absolute and painful. Jotaro may or may not have been crying in the corner from those brutal truths Joseph and just dropped.

Caesar then put a comforting hand on Joseph's shoulder, putting a blanket over him.

Joseph blinked several times, staring into the face of his old friend, whom he thought he would never see again.

"Wha-Caesar? What are you doing here? How-how are you alive, you died!"

Caesar laughed, a warm, friendly laugh.

"Silly Jojo! You must've hit your head! We've been pushed down the Hell Climb pillar, remember? It's 1939, and you have to get better at Hamon to defeat the Pillar Men!"

Looking around at the pool of oil he sat in, Joseph shook his head a bit. Looking around, he saw they were in fact in the dark pit of the Hell Climb Pillar, and he could see the sunlight slanting down from the top, some 50 meters up. Lisa Lisa stared down menacingly from the top, and his friend Caesar Zeppelli was beside him. Joseph smiled: all was well.

"You're right, Caesar… what the devil was that dream? It was so strange… it's like I dreamed a whole life…"

Caesar sighed, shaking Joseph's shoulder a bit.

"Jojo! Don't be a fool, be a man! Dreams are for girls, and you don't want to show any trace of being feminine, do you?! We're wearing crop tops, we're manly as hell! We gotta keep it that way, Mamma Mia! We have to climb up the pillar! The longer we stay down here, the less energy we'll have to climb!" With that, Caesar began to climb, concentrating the hamon through his fingertips.

"Right behind you, Caesar!" Jojo shouted happily as he too began to climb.

**************THE END**************

"Old man?" Jotaro leaned over, shaking Joseph. "You zoned out for a second, are you going senile or something? There's no one named Caesar here. Wasn't he one of your old buddies or something?"

Joseph looked around. The cave was still there, and Caesar wasn't. Joseph began to cry.

Sokka then put a comforting hand on Joseph's shoulder, putting a blanket over him.

"Sorry about that, Joseph. Since I descended back to earth to help you guys, my Messiah powers are stronger than ever, and they can sometimes cause people to mentally time travel and deteriorate. What you just experienced was a tragic collapse of a fragile soul, sorry about that."

"SOKKA?!" everyone shouted in unison.