Chapter six:

Going alone

I'm mentally unstable. That has to be the only reason that I'm following a ghost to the very top of the tower by climbing up a rope that's been there for an unknown amount of time. I'm assuming it's still there from when Martin tried to rescue his bride. That's a really long time, considering that Danaria and the poets have been here for a hundred years.

"It's up to you. From here on out, there are no ghost, no allies. No-one can help you after this point." Lisa stands at the base of the rope with Tai and Davis. Neither of them argued when I stepped forward and volunteered. I half-hoped that Davis would say that it wouldn't work, because Ken could never love me. I wanted to hug him for keeping his silence, and giving me hope.

Of course, I did nothing. In typical Yamato Ishida fashion, I looked coldly at the rope, and said "Let's go." They didn't want to stay behind, but neither did they want to argue with the only two people that could help us. Lisa had volunteered to lead them to the kitchen to wait. According to Danaria, I had to go on alone.

At the top of the tower, we stand on the tiled roof, facing across the expanse to the southern tower. The wind whips around us, blowing my bangs into my eyes, and out again. She stands unaffected, her dress lying in seamless lines. "How much do you know about death, Matt?"

I shrug. "It's death. Bang, it's over, there is no more?" She smiles slightly, and arches a brow at me. "Okay, so it's not the final destination. Is that one of the challenges I have to face?" I look over the edge of the roof, to the ground nearly seventy feet below me. Whoever built the towers obviously had a strong stomach. I'm feeling quesy from the thought of the height, and my stomach is revolting.

"My poem, like all the poems you've heard, have a meaning. The bride's poem, 'Demand'. 'Respond'. They all mean something, and they all go together, sharing in the meaning. You need to decide exactly how much you care about your friend. If you don't believe in yourself, then neither will he."

"Does he know what's going on?" She smiles that sad wisp of a smile, and looks away, across the expanse that separates me from Ken. "What's wrong?" There's a sudden stillness in the air, as if nature itself is waiting.

"There's something dark in him, something that has lain dormant for many years." Shit. That sounds way too damn ominous for me. It's one thing to save Ken, the guy that I'm in love with. It's quite another to save the damn Kaiser, and bring him back to the world where he can do large quantities of damage all over again. "Are you willing to save him, no matter the consequences?"

I look at her before closing my eyes. In the back of my mind is a picture of the Kaiser, his hair spiked up, his cape fluttering in the wind. The image is replaced by a smiling Ken, his eyes gentle, his shoulders squared in preparation for the fight with Malomyotismon and Owikawa. I blink, lifting my eyelids to stare into her eyes. "I'll save him from himself, if I have to."

My Ken, appearance and attitude aside, is not a cold-blooded tyrant, nor is he the shy, timid boy he was after returning to our side. He's a combination of both, with the backbone and kindness of both. He's Ken. She smiles, then looks back down the hatch to wave at my friends and Lisa. "Then here is a hard part, and it's only the first part of your challenge."

"Just point me in the direction I have to go." She points at the southern tower, at the other end of the house, over a hundred yards away on a very slanted roof. The drop to the roof of the house is approximately fifteen to twenty feet, five meters. And should I lose my footing, or slip, it's another fifty feet to the ground. Not a very pleasant thought. I can just picture myself impaled against some tree limb. "Are you sure that you're on my side?"

"Are you sure that you can handle this?" For the first time, she looks snidely at me, twisting features to show disappointment and disgust. "Just go back down the rope, Matt. If you can't start the journey, how do you expect to finish it?"

"This is a cinch." To prove my point, I go to the edge, and sit down, dangling my legs over the side. My show is full of bravado that I'm far from feeling. I flip over to my stomach, and shimmy backwards, feeling my knees, and then my ligs lose their support. They hit against the side of the tower, but I keep sliding, feeling my shirt slide up, and the rough shingles rub against my skin.

I stop when only my upper arms keep me up, and glance at the Comtesse. She's smiling happily. "Good luck, Matt. From all of us. When you succeed, we'll all be free, so thank you. I may not get the opportunity to say that again later."

She disappears, and I assume that she's gone to tell Tai and Davis that I've begun. Something warm is trickling down my raw torso, and it's safe to assume that it's blood. There's a soreness that increases as I lower myself farther, until I'm only hanging on by my hands, which are starting to hurt themselves.

      Would it cause a problem

      to refuse to die;

      or teaching an animal without wings to fly.

I let go, feeling the wind rush up to meet me before my feet hit the roof, and the impact sends me crashing down the side in a sick series of revolutions. In the second before I tumble over the side, my hands grip the edge instinctively, and I swing madly against the side of the house. My breathing is ragid, and my hands I can see the blood slowly leaking from between my palms and the tiles of roofing.

In the corner of my mind comes a thought, previously unknown, and I can hear myself speak between gasps.

      "I would laugh for love,

      Cry for love,

      Jump off the edge and fly for love."

I may not have flown too well, but I can proudly say that I didn't fail the first test. The only problem now is to figure out how to pull myself back up while ignoring the pain. If I lack the strength, then I fall. There will be nobody to help pull me back up.

I think back over my life, and try to remember the last thing that I knew I absolutely had to do. And the only answer that comes is: saving the world. That was my big thing in life, the way my friends will always remember me. "Yeah, I remember Matt, he helped us save the world when we were kids."

Hell no, not in this life time. I reach up, digging my fingers and nails into the wooden shingles, slowly lifting my body up, until I can hook my elbows, and lever myself onto the roof. When I die, and leave my friends behind, they are going to remember me as the man who risked everything for love. What cause could be more noble than that?

My stomach just slid over the edge, and I think I can probably swing my legs up. I do so, using the momentum to roll up the slope a little, grabbing onto a wood tile to keep from rolling back the other way. I push myself to my knees, careful to stay low so that the wind doesn't try to knock me down. I move forward slowly, eyeing the top of the roof. It's not that far away, I know I can make it. Fifteen feet...then ten. At the top of the roof is a flat spot that leads to the other end of the house. From there, I can slide down to the wall of the other tower.

I keep going, moving carefully. I've seen the movies where the hero slips on a loose shingle, and slips backwards. I don't think I have the strength to pull myself back up again. I really should have listened to Tai last year, when he told me that gym class wouldn't kill me. How right he was!

I reach the top, and flip onto my back, breathing heavily, my heart racing out of control. I look back down the side, and stare at the shingles I displaced during my climb. Almost all the shingles have been shifted, and some are even missing, showing the bare wood of the roof in the gaps I left behind. I made it, and that's only the first test.

My hand touches my stomach gently, and I lift my head to peer at the scratches and cuts embedded in my pale skin. There are angry, bloody lines criss-crossing on my abdomen.

An image of Ken flashes in my mind, and I flip to my stomach, carefully pushing myself to my feet. My legs tremble, and my hands are shaking. I ignore my body's reaction and start carefully toward the other end of the house, taking small steps and stretching my arms out to help maintain my balance.

The tower draws closer, until I come to the end of the flat part of the roof. It slopes steeply downward again, and my knees give out, causing me to sit heavily on the wood. From here, I can see the top of the tower, but I wouldn't be able to reach it. There's a window, something neither of the other two had. Inside is darkness, mocking me and my quest.

"It's not fair!" I yell at the world at large, indignation and frustration beating through me. "How am I supposed to climb the tower when there is no princess with long hair?"

I have some stupid lines of poetry that are totally worthless at the moment, and a flat little disk...the disk! Of course. The grumpy ghost in tower one said that I would need it! I take it out, holding it in the palm of my hand.

"Okay, I have the disk, now how am I supposed to use this stupid thing?" If neither Lisa, nor Danaria can join me, then who is going to tell me what I have to do? I haven't a clue. So far, I've lucked out to get this far. From here on out, I doubt that the lines on a paper our going to do me much good. "If anyone's listening, I could really use some help."

I sigh, feeling my shoulders sag.