Janus vs. Virginia

"Most impressive Princess," commented Janus, "Those wings, I mean. I see you too have left your humanity behind, and embraced the Demon's powers. But what kind of a Demon has green wings on them? Oh well, I guess it doesn't matter to me. I challenge you to a one on one duel, no interference from your men. That goes double for the silver haired lad whose always standing by you and taking care of you when I give you a beating. I still don't get him, why risk your life for someone else? You very well might die then."

"Because Jet has a heart, unlike you. And you wanna taste my power? Fine! I'll give it to you. I have to warn you though, I'm not a pushover like you might think. I'm pretty strong for a little girl. Even if I keep my wings at bay, I have a strength inside that you never would even be able to think existed," Virginia told Janus, throwing her cloak to Jet. She stepped up, and aimed her guns at Janus, who extended the Dark Spear. Both combatants looked ready to shoot, but neither wanted to start the fight. They both had decided to let the other have the first move. Until Jet began to yell for them to start fighting already and he didn't want to be there all day. It was then that Janus charged, and Virginia shot at him with her Pistols.

Both Drifters dodged the hits meant for them. Virginia then took to the air on her wings, and tried to avoid Janus that way. He, however had something that Malik didn't have, a great range with his spear. That was shown when Janus slashed upwards, and shot a Negative Rainbow at the girl in the sky. Although the wings prevented much damage with a singular barrier, Virginia was knocked off of her balance, and thrown to the ground below. Jet ran to catch her, and she ended up landing on top of him. Dusting herself off, the girl picked her friend up. Then she used Heal on him, and returned to the fight, leaving him in Clive's care.

Janus said, "That barrier is quite a feat, using your own body to block an attack that comes from the enemy. I think my respect for you just went up a notch. Well done, Princess. Now, to continue our fight, I think we should just leave it all up to a one shot match. Each of us take one of your little pistols, and we walk away at ten paces. Then, we turn and shoot. Whoever gets the worse off wound, loses. If I win, I will have the pleasure of destroying all of you by torture. But if you win, you can do whatever you want with me."

Virginia looked at him. "Deal! I agree to the terms of the duel. But if I win, you will let us move on, and we will be able to kill you in proper combat. Because I can never kill in cold blood. So I we win, I will let you take your ARM up again, and fight. But since you will have suffered a prior wound, you will lose to us much more quickly. Then we will have finished this, but I don't have to break my strict honor code."

She handed him an ARM, and they stood back to back. Counting to ten, the two began to walk away from each other. When they arrived at the last number, the two turned and fired. Virginia felt Janus shoot her in the chest, it hurt a lot. But she had also shot Janus through his heart. As Jet ran to tend to his companion, Clive went to check on Janus. It appeared as if he had been killed by the shot. Virginia, however, had gotten lucky. For in her chest, there was a small piece of shrapnel that had never been taken out. It was now a protective plating around her vital organs, fixed from a deadly wound to a great asset by the Power of Filgaia. She knew she wouldn't die if hit even in a place like that, and that was why she hadn't been afraid to challenge Janus like that. For Virginia knew she would win, her wound could only be so deep.

* * *

Finally, they arrived at the computer room. There, they found Werner working on a device. Virginia knew it was used to stop Yggdrasil, and he was having trouble working it. Leehalt must have done whatever program was in it, she knew he was good at such things. Perhaps the only person who could even come close to his ability was her father, as Leehalt thought Werner upstaged him over everything in the world.

"It's all our fault," Werner informed the Drifters, "Filgaia was pretty green before we turned on this system. It wasn't perfect, but it wasn't this bad either. But Yggdrasil began to drain all of the life out of the planet in order to redeposit it into this very spot. After the system overloaded, the seas vanished, and we only had sand left over. When you were little, Virginia, you used to swim in the ocean all the time. Now it takes a miracle to find anywhere you can swim. For there is no place left with even a lake, only wells that run underground. Darn it! I need to stop this now. Leehalt, you always were one heck of a programmer, I can give you that much. Even when you're at your end, when it looks as if you are dying, you come through for your cause. Too bad our causes this time are different, for now I don't know how I can ever stop you."

"Daddy, Jet and I can help. We can use our powers to stop the system. Don't worry, we've both had a lot of practice with combining our strengths. So let us give you a hand, you'll need all the help you can get," begged Virginia. Werner's smile told her all she needed to know, she was free to give it a try.

So Virginia and Jet grabbed the communication port, and began to concentrate. Together, they fired an Airget-Beam down the tube, overloading it with the Power of Filgaia. The system hummed a little bit, but then it stopped. Relief washed over Virginia, now all they had to do was to kill off the Prophets.

Werner said, "This is no place for you now, go on home. I can do the last phase myself, and stop them by killing them. Besides, if they don't have any way to evolve the planet, then there is nothing to worry about. For you know they'll die when this is all over, Filgaia itself will reject their very forms. That is why they are going to do this, they don't want to die. It's my problem, they were my comrades after all." He then left through the door, heading towards the top floor. Virginia watched him go, worried about her father.

"Everyone, we're going too. I must not let the Prophets get their way. If you are with me, then we will all head out towards the final area of Yggdrasil. There, we will finally be able to put a stop to their mad scheme." Virginia stepped forward, towards the same door, but felt a hand pull her sleeve. She turned, to see Jet with a scolding look on his face. The boy was genuinely worried about her going off on her own now.

"Whatever you say," he stated, "I am going with you. After all, your old man's wrong. It's not just his problem, it's ours too. We were a part of this, and we should put a stop to it." He took out Airget-lamh, and aimed it at the air in front of him. Virginia did the same with her pistols. They were ready for anything.

- - - -

Sky's Corner

Hey, mark chapter five. Teefa is now singing "Wings" and I might add she's being loud about it. She's sure getting crazy. Now we see how the two can work together to do the same things Jet did without having the poor boy faint.