Part III

In the faint candlelight Virginia and Jet stood, back to back, facing the surrounding darkness with ARMs in hand. The dry, dusty air was full of sounds: the beating of boots against the wooden floor as well as a quick-paced scuttling noise ever approaching. A constant, low growl hummed in the background and an occasional painfully weary groan echoed through the hallways.

Her fear eased by the weapons in her hands Virginia's mind drifted, despite the situation, off to words earlier spoken.

He said he loves me! I'm sure of it! Her heart racing she glanced over her shoulder at the white haired boy, …But that's like the last thing I'd ever expect to hear from him! Can it really be true? She wanted nothing more than to ask him but it was just so horribly wrong a time. Ghost or not they would pay dearly for ruining her chance to get a confession out of him.

There was always later, she assured herself, assuming they survived whatever the mansion had in store for them. Come to think it they weren't even sure it was hostile, that whatever it was enclosing on them under the cover of darkness. At that moment however, any other assumption would have to have been an incredible feat of positive thinking.

Well, she figured, releasing the safety on her two pistols, it's always better to be safe than sorry.

Thud… …thud…

It was so very close now.

Jet gasped as something stepped into his field of vision. Virginia had to fight the urge to whirl around to take a look herself. He was covering her back just as she was covering his. Suddenly she felt him move. Without the familiar presence of his back against hers she felt naked and vulnerable.

I trust him… She repeated in her mind.

A series of explosion rang through the confined space followed by the wet sound of blood and gore splattering across the hallway behind her. It had been the Airget-lamh; she recognized the sound.

"…Well, they aren't ghosts" Jet sounded calm and unemotional. Virginia was just about to turn around when a movement among the shadows caught her eyes. The shape of a human stumbled across the floor toward her, dragging one leg behind in a painful limp. In the split second that followed she had time to distinguish two hairy, claw-like hands hungrily reaching for her, a near toothless grin cracking up, splitting the face in two and the gaping black cavity where one eye should have been. Firing her ARM at near point blank range she exploded much of the head in a single shot. The person fell backward and struck the floor with a heavy crash.

"What the hell was that!?" Virginia exclaimed, her breath ragged from shock. No one answered. "J-Jet?" she held her breath.

"I'm here." Jet's voice sounded controlled, although somewhat strained, "Listen," he urged her, "…they're gone."

Indeed the house was again silent, the symphony of feet hushed. No more was the strange scuttling sound approaching and no pained groans rang throughout the house. All things considered it was too silent.

"There's no way these two caused all that racket by themselves." he continued and Virginia dared to turn her back on the dark corridor and face him, "The others must've heard the shots."

Jet stood next to a body slumped up against the wall. Clad in raggedy clothing it would easily have passed for a human, had it not been for the hands that best fit the description of 'beast-like'. Its face was missing, having met a similar fate as the one bleeding on the floor behind Virginia, thus making it hard to tell just what kind of creature it was.

"A-Are they really human?" Virginia slowly regained her composure. She hoped they weren't. Killing humans was never easily justifiable by her book, no matter the situation. Then again, was killing ever easily justifiable? She shook her head; this was not the time to ponder such things.

"I'm no doctor, but don't these look a bit too freaky to be human?" Jet pointed at the strangely aligned legs that seemed to bend in very impossible directions, then at the furry, claws-like hands Virginia had already noted.

"Then," she proposed, "could they be demons?"

"I seriously hope not. I've had enough of those." he sighed wearily and looked up from the gruesome body.

"I hear you" she concurred locking eyes with him and smiling weekly, "So… what do we do now?"

"Hell if I know." Jet replied, reloading his ARM, "You're the leader, you decide."

"Ok, how about…" she thought for a moment, "we head back to the lounge, barricade the place and wait for sunrise? Getting out should be easier when we can actually see where we're going."

"Sounds like a plan to me" he agreed.

Cautiously wandering back through the dark corridors, listening for any signs of life, Virginia wondered about the possibility that Clive and Gallows had heard the gunshots or perhaps remembered what they had all so idiotically forgotten regarding the mansion. Dared she hope they were already on their way to aid them? As much as she enjoyed being alone with Jet, it wouldn't do her much good if they both died.

Speaking of Jet…she looked at the young man holding her hand, leading her forth on their way toward the warm and hopefully secure lounge. His youthful yet ever scowling face, lit by the candle he held in his free hand, held a look of great determination. She wondered briefly if it wasn't dangerous for him to be holding her hand instead of his ARM incase they were attacked again. She decided not to bring it to his attention. What's life without a little risk, anyway?

Somewhere in the mansion a low growl sounded, reminding them of the present danger. Fortunately it had sounded from far away.

"Jet?" Virginia whispered, "They must be some kind of monsters, right?"

"I don't know." he replied eyes and ears remaining focused on the surroundings, "Does it matter? If they attack us, we defend ourselves."

"But isn't it an advantage to know what you're up against?"

"Well, we know that, don't we? After all, we just met two of them." his grip on her hand tightened slightly as the shadows played tricks on his mind, "However inhuman they may or may not be, we can kill 'em. That's really all that matters."

"H-How can you always be so cold?" Virginia stopped abruptly, forcing him to do the same. She stared hard at his back, waiting for his answer. The timing was very bad, she was well aware of that, but nonetheless she needed for him to explain himself.

"Look," Jet turned to face her, "the way things are now, we may very well have to fight more of these creatures or people or whatever they are. It's kill or be freaking killed here!" His eyes looked alive with rare emotion. She couldn't tell if it was anger or… something else. "If you hadn't shot that… freak, do you think it would have shown you the same courtesy? Did it look as if it would have settled for a brief chat!?" He didn't leave her time to answer, "I don't believe they're human, or maybe that's just what I want to believe, but it really doesn't matter."

Virginia couldn't respond, even had she wanted to. Her blue eyes locked with his violet ones, drowning in the pools of raw emotion that had emerged from behind the usual emotionless facade.

"If I have to kill to stay alive, I will." he stated, staring at her intently. Then for a moment his voice softened ever so slightly, "And if I have to kill to keep you alive, I will"

Again he didn't wait for her to speak, simply turning away to carry on walking. Virginia quietly followed him, her hand still secure in his grip. He had made a good point, she acknowledged, even if she still felt quite torn. He was different from her. That was old news. He had always been cold, or acted so anyway, and it had been her personal quest to change him. Now she wasn't sure as how to feel about that anymore.

They were very different, perhaps too different. But he cared for her. He would kill to protect her.

Then again, she was no angel herself. In the harsh wasteland very few drifters were allowed to be. But she felt the weight of remorse and she felt guilt. No matter how hard she tried she just couldn't remain detached and cold when she was faced with the act of killing.

"Maybe I'm really not fit to be a drifter?" she whispered meekly.

Jet sighed

"That realization came a bit late, don't you think?" his voice startled her as she had been unaware of voicing her thought, "We've already saved the freakin' planet for crying out loud…" he was still walking ahead of her and didn't bother to turn around as he spoke. "I'm sure everyone thinks you're great. I mean even I do, uh, sometimes… So don't… don't change, ok?" he cringed slightly as he heard himself speak in such corny wording, "The world doesn't really need more people like me." a short silence ensued the statement. As Virginia found herself at a loss of words, Jet was the first to speak again: "We're here"

They stopped outside the door to the lounge area on the first floor. Jet finally let go of her hand replacing it with the Airget-lamh.

"Let's make sure there are no unwanted guests" He spoke quietly, looking over at her. She gave him a silent nod still somewhat hung up on his earlier words. Regretfully shaking her head to rid herself the distracting thoughts she readied her own ARMs.

Bursting through the doorway their trained eyes quickly surveyed the area. The fire they had left burning had been reduced to a smoldering heap of ash but other than that the place looked very much the same as before. The room was empty and thus their surprise attack was brought to an anticlimactic end. To make absolutely sure Jet quietly moved across the floor to check behind the sheet-covered furniture while Virginia closed the door behind them.

The room would work as their safehouse for the night. Jet came over and together they moved a large desk in front of the door that fortunately opened inward. After that he went on to reestablish the fire. Virginia lit a few more candles while trying not to think of the very romantic setting they had unconsciously created. A fireplace emitting a warm, cozy atmosphere, the many glowing candles…

Of course with those vicious god-know-what's prowling the corridors outside, the picture was far from perfect. Besides, Jet wasn't exactly the ideal romantic partner either, clueless and morose as he spent most his time. Still, she knew of no one she'd rather have by her side in a situation like this one. By that she meant both the romantic 'evening by the fireplace' setting and the life threatening reality outside the room.

"So, I guess there's nothing left to do but wait now…" she sighed, making her way to sit down next to him in front of the fire.

"Yup" Jet agreed. "You could catch some sleep if you want to, I'll stay guard." he offered in a somewhat unconscious act of courteousness.

"It's ok. Strangely enough I'm not that tired." Virginia smiled.

"Yeah, I get what you mean…"

The two drifted off into silence staring into the blaze of orange and red in front of them. Moving to sit closer to him, Virginia earned herself a questioning look from her friend.

"You should know by now." she stated plainly, taking his hand to hold and leaning against his shoulder ever so slightly. Much to her relief he didn't shrug her off, as she might have thought he would.

"Some team building exercise this turned out to be, huh?" she spoke again after a short period of silence.

"Yeah" he agreed with little amusement.

"I-I'm sorry… I guess it's my fault we're in this mess…" She looked down at their joined hands.

"Not really, we were supposed to do that investigation thing, anyway. Remember?" his eyes left the fire to rest on her.

"Yeah, but at least then Clive and Gallows would've been here too…" Virginia argued.

"I guess, but it doesn't really matter." he shrugged with his usual indifference, "I mean we're both still alive, right?"

"Yeah…"

"And, uh, I guess you could say that team building crap actually worked…" Jet paused and she shot him a very questioning look, "I, uh… I guess you could say I feel somewhat less… confused about certain things now…" he felt a slight numbness spread throughout his body following the realization of what he had said, and in which direction he had just deliberately led the conversation. He never seemed to stop amazing himself.

"Certain things?" Virginia repeated. To say she was incredibly curious would have been a grave understatement. "Jet?"

He opened his mouth to speak again but didn't really know what to say. Had he really thought he could go through with it? And was he truly less confused? Perhaps he was really more so but confused the feeling with lesser confusion? …But why would he do that? He suddenly felt very confused.

To be honest, his earlier confession had him just as baffled as it had her. He could admit it seemed fairly clear that he cared for her, or at least that there was something he felt that differentiated her from everyone else. It also seemed that her well being had somehow suddenly become a concern of his. But could he really love her? It felt as if he'd gone from nothing to everything on an emotional level all in one huge step. And now he was stumbling.

She was patiently waiting for him to speak but somehow it felt as if the more he delayed, the higher her expectations would soar. What kind of confession could a person of his verbal incompetence offer, anyway? Looking at the beautiful young girl beside him, her blue eyes watching him expectantly, he decided to at least give it his best shot. But what would one usually say in this situation? He took a deep breath.

"V-Virginia, you're really pretty and-" he was interrupted mid-sentence by the sound of gunfire.

"Clive and Gallows!" the two exclaimed simultaneously.

"Let's go." Jet rose from the floor and dashed for the door.

"But you never did finish…" Virginia tried to get his attention while promising herself retribution for the unfortunate interruption. Clive and Gallows would pay. "It's not fair…" she muttered sourly.

Jet didn't hear her protest, pushing the desk out of the way he opened the door. Suddenly pouncing from the darkness a shadowy figure crashed into him, a growl escaping its throat.

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Whoa. A real cliffhanger. Sorry about that but I'm trying to keep the chapters roughly the same length.

Oh, and I'm also evil.