Forgotten Memories

They traveled to the town of Boot Hill, first by Sandcraft, and then by horse. By the time they had arrived, it was just starting to get late. But the town didn't have a saloon of its own. Virginia thought it would be a good idea to stay with her aunt and uncle, even if they didn't remember her they did remember what she and Jet had done for them five years ago. Thinking about the battle back then made her shiver.

They knocked on the door, and Tesla answered it. He smiled. "Welcome back you two, I still have fond memories of how the two young Drifters eliminated the wicked Shadow Demon who had come to the Gob's Hideout and began making trouble. And you seem to have brought friends with you too. Welcome to my humble home. My name is Tesla Maxwell, what might your names be? We didn't get them the last time you passed through, it was so quick. Besides, you were both still in shock from all the partying done after your victory." He led them inside the house, so they could sit down in the kitchen and get acquainted.

"Well, I am Vanessa," Virginia told him, "And these are my companions, Jet, Clive and Gallows. We are passing through here on an important quest. Well, I've got a question for you. When we were doing some research at the Ark of Destiny, we came upon the name Werner Maxwell in a book about a group of scientists. I was wondering, is he in any way related to you?" She looked at the others, to tell them not to correct her misleading name. Clive and Gallows wondered what was wrong with her, why didn't she tell the truth about her name? Was it something to do with why she and Jet never told anyone their last names?

"He was my older brother. Werner lived at the laboratory for years, always working on a project and rarely if ever coming home. But one day, that all changed. He came home one weekend with a beautiful girl on his arm. I remember him writing about having a girlfriend in the nearby town, but I didn't believe him until that day. Werner said her name was Ekatrina, and they were going to get married. The two of them moved into the house with us, it's been in our family for generations, and Werner went to work every day using one of the legendary Teleport Orbs. It wasn't long after their wedding that they gave birth to a little girl, their only child. Everything was perfect until over ten years ago, when Werner went away for a lengthy project. His daughter, Virginia, followed him to the lab, and neither ever came home again. Ekatrina was so heartbroken at the loss of both her husband and only child, that she passed away several months later," Tesla lamented.

Tears were in Virginia's eyes so Clive continued to ask the questions. He inquired, "Do you know anything about your brother's projects? Was it really some sort of disastrous end to their team? For three of them seem to have reappeared, and are in league with wicked powers. We must stop them at all costs."

Tesla shrugged. "All I know was it had something to do with the regeneration of Filgaia, and it was called 'The Yggdrasil Project'. Yggdrasil is a tree in old mythology, said to have guarded the world. So it was quite fitting for the Council of Seven to refer to it in the name of their project to save our home. Sadly, I destroyed all of the old journals, thinking my brother was dead. I really have no proof that he did die, but he would never have gone and left his wife, they were really in love. And he would have brought Virginia home. I do, however, have one of his most recent, the one he left here before he went to work on that last project."

* * *

"I'm sorry Mother," Virginia whispered, "Sorry I haven't been back in awhile. It just hurts so much to stay here, with all of the memories of you and Father. I can't believe what is going on with Leehalt, Melody and Malik, they're consulting with Demons. You have a right to know, that three have survived at least, even though they're acting out wicked plots. There is a chance then, I though I saw Father on one of my quests."

While Clive was still talking to Tesla, asking more questions, Virginia had excused herself to get a little fresh air. She'd stolen away to the cemetery with a Tiny Flower to place on her mother's grave. It was almost a comfort for her to be here, to feel like she was back with her mother once again. She missed her so much. One crystal teardrop fell from her eyes, and onto the grave. Several more followed close behind.

"I knew I'd find you here. You always did love your parents a lot. You know, even though you've gone through so much, had to lose all you care about, I envy you. At least you did have parents who could take care of you and love you, I only had scientists who mostly thought of me as just an experiment to test a theory. All I have now is you, and you have me. Nice twist of fate that is, the creation and the creator's daughter traveling together all these years," Jet said from behind her. Virginia smiled, he knew her all too well now. He could tell when she was sad, and was always there to cheer her up. And she did the same for him when he felt his identity was getting a little to heavy to bear on his own. A friend was all he needed in times like those. With tears in her eyes, she fell into Jet's arms, and just lay there, feeling his warmth.

She told him, "Thank you Jet. Every time I don't feel well, you're there for me. I know that you're more than the boy you show other people. You try to hide behind that mask, so you don't leave yourself vulnerable to another's painful words. I wish it were that easy for me, but I'm still a lot like the girl I was raised to be. My mother taught me about always being honest with yourself, and I can't just turn my back on my beliefs. I wish she could come back again, like when she visited me five years ago after the feast.

Jet pulled her closer, and embraced his partner. "Don't worry, it'll all work out ok in the end. I'm sure we can defeat these clowns, and stop them from destroying our home. And I'll find your old man for you too, then you at least will have someone who cares about you. You were right, the man we saw in the ruin, it did look like the guy in the picture. Only difference seems to be he's aged a little. Meaning he didn't contract Demons to live like the Prophets did. He survived, and you're going to have a family once again."

"I always have had a family," she said, "You're my family. Jet, I don't want to lose you, be careful out there. I love you, more than a friend, more than a brother. I realized how much I really care about you."

"I love you too Virginia. You're the only person who will love me for me," Jet whispered back at her. Then, they looked into one another's eyes, and gave each other a passionate kiss. Virginia's tears began to turn to tears of joy, the weakness of the evening had given way to the two finally figuring out their feelings.

* * *

Gallows, who was hiding in the corner, thought, 'So, they really do care a lot about each other. But why was she crying? Does it have something to do with why she acted strangely around here? I think I should have paid more attention to that Tesla guy's speech. Probably held a clue, but I thought she could take notes along with Clive. Not like I'm the brains. Oh well, I better keep spying if I want to see what move the two of them are going to be making next.' He went back inside, pretending not to have seen anything.

- - - -

Teefa's Last Words…

Romance at last. Twenty chapters into things, I was getting kind of bored with waiting for the right moment to come. Mana Flow's romance started how long into it? Longer than this, it was near the end of the Jumi and Dragon quests. Somewhere between twenty five and forty. And that's a wide estimate since I don't know for sure. About Werner, no one seemed to notice that he didn't age from the picture, although they noticed that Malik was the same. I could see Virginia idealistically saying, "this is my daddy, he's ok," and not noticing it, but Clive or Jet would have thought of something. Probably, he used Hyadas's power to make it look like he aged, just so he didn't seem suspicious. Especially since he was trying to follow Jet around, he'd need to keep a low profile (his training made the boy extremely untrusting).

Fun Fact: The graveyard scene is my favorite in the entire trilogy.