(A/N: Now up to a quarter of a million words, and seventy whole chapters. My gods, we've come a long way. I just needed to say this now, because I am downright amazed. Thank you all for reviewing and helping to make this huge epic great! ^_^)
"Heal!"
A silvery light twinkled into life and encircled Jet's wounded body, scattering a light rain of ephemeral glitter down upon the boy. Gallows had his hands suspended above Jet's midsection and they glowed faintly with a white aura, expending the needed curative magic. The android grunted softly as the arcana took effect and gritted his teeth in his sleep, refraining from reentering the waking world. Some of the ugly purple bruising along the sides of his arms faded away under the spell, but the greater and more dangerous wounding still stood strong. Virginia noticed the rising and falling of Jet's breathing deepen, and was comforted by the idea that he was in a place where he could not feel pain anymore.
The Baskar frowned and stood up, the glow of the arcana vanishing like a light going out. He had checked over Jet and Clive's bodies with the air of a doctor or healer, and Jet had been set through several heal spells into a stable condition. This was only a temporary solution, but at least the boy would not die. He was still alive, barely, and appeared to be staying where he was, on the borderline between life and death. Gallows knew that he would hold on in his stubborn little way until the very end. Clive, on the other hand, worried him greatly. He was just a corpse that breathed and performed all the involuntary functions, but lacked his signature aura, the essence that controlled his body. He had no mind, he had lost his soul. The priest was somehow reminded of a shuffling grey zombie, but then shook the bad thoughts from his head straight after, trying to remain optimistic.
"He's going to live, Ginny," He told his team leader with a wan smile, "But he needs more than just a regular heal arcana. Dammit, I'd kill for a mega berry right now!" Of all the crops that had flourished during the Secret Garden's harvest season, their very special and fragile mega berry bush had died. It was just bad luck, he guessed, but having a few now would have really been useful. The big Baskar suddenly experienced an incredibly great idea and moved over to Clive's body, remembering that out of all of them, Clive had been carrying the very last ripe mega berry in his inventory. He looked up at Catherine first, who was sitting only a few feet away, with Kaitlyn in her lap. She seemed to be physically and mentally drained, but nodded towards him with a small smile, giving the priest permission to search Clive's body.
Gallows removed Clive hands that were resting over his chest and set them, slightly spaced, by his sides, so he could check the insides of each of his sleeves first. It was not uncommon for a drifter to have a small hidden pocket in the upper inside of a coat sleeve, to hide an item or possibly even a weapon. He found nothing except for the wrist grappling mechanism that the green-haired man always wore, and then dropped Clive's arm gently and searched through the deeper and larger pockets on the inside of his coat, which were filled with a very strange variety of items. Gallows didn't bother to check the other drifter's bullet case that was strapped to his leg, knowing that it would have only contained ammo for his rifle. He pulled out some rumpled-looking status curative items, a few dark feathers picked up sometime during his journey, an oddly shaped rock that looked like a crescent moon, his mighty gloves, and, Gallows grimaced when he identified what he had grasped, a dead mouse.
Flinging the dead carcass away as swiftly as possible and wiping his hands on his yellow open vest, Gallows concluded that Clive must have used up his mega berry sometimes during the time he had spent away from everyone else. It was too bad, but appeared to be true. The priest thought about the dead mouse and pulled a disgusted face, it had most likely been a snack that he had forgotten about during his lycan phase. Finally, he removed the last item from Clive's inventory, recognizing it and raising an eyebrow. It was Kaitlyn's ribbon, and though it was still dirty, it was perfectly intact.
"My ribbon!" Kaitlyn exclaimed as she got up and hopped on over to Gallows's side. "Daddy must'a found it as my clue! Wow, I thought clues and stuff like this only worked in books!" The Baskar chuckled and handed the girl back her ribbon, so she could fix it back into the place where it was supposed to be. Clive's hand curled slightly by his side, a gradual movement, and very faintly, his sleeping face showed the tiniest hint of strain. It was so small, however, that nobody nearby noticed. Kaitlyn finished tying her ribbon and giggled, the sound of her laughter working amazingly well to boost their collective morale. "This is an adventure, just like in a book!" She said.
"You think we're in a book?" Gallows smiled outwardly, while he felt nervous on the inside. "I hope not, stories that run like this don't usually have happy endings. I hope the author's unoriginal, 'cause I want a happy ending." He added with his own little laugh. Kaitlyn smiled and nodded, likening their situation to something else actually took the tension off, and gave them a little chance to calm down. Lightly, she patted her old rediscovered ribbon and craned her neck up to stare at the huge golem looming above them, frozen in a mid-movement. It's thickly plated hand was still partially buried into the gritty dirt of the ground from when it had protected Kaitlyn, as if she was still there. It was like the creation was somehow frozen in time.
Virginia's expression darkened as she gazed upon the golem. She hardly ever got to be truly upset, and now she looked like she had passed that line ages ago. "He's in there," She hissed, "Ravendor. He did this to Jet, and he claims he knows my father. That means he must have been associated with the Prophets-" She mulled over this for a little while. He could control ancient technology, he knew Werner, and he had that eerie sinister and patronizing aura which she could only correlate with that deadly trio. "No," Virginia argued with herself, "He is a Prophet. We can't let history repeat itself, we have to destroy him as quickly as possible." Masking her own personal bloodlust with a nobler cause, she looked riled and ready to tear somebody's head off.
In a way that was almost becoming sort of a habit, Catherine took over Clive's position as the lateral thinker in their party. "Virginia, think about this." She intoned. "Ravendor has hidden himself behind a shell of technology and impervious metal. However, he must have found some way to get inside the machine himself, so one can only assume that there is a back door." The ex-drifter smiled. "There is always a back door. It is a golden rule. We must simply use the same doorway that Ravendor has opened. Then we can…" She faltered, the words sticking in her throat. "…kill him."
…What is this? I know what I am feeling… but… No, snap out of it! I cannot love him anymore! It was over years ago! He is no longer the man I fell in love with! Time has…changed him… Catherine glanced over towards Clive's body, biting her lip. Time has changed everybody…
"I'm gonna take a wild crazy guess here." Said Gallows, pulling himself onto two feet. He pointed towards the golem, now the center of everybody's attention. "Let's just say that this big clunker is like Lombardia. Y'know, big machine thingies and stuff. It must have an entry hatch somewhere." The Baskar's gaze ran along Diablo's arm and up to it's shoulders, giving access to it's back. The ideas in his head connected and yielded to one great big plan. Gallows scratched his head lightly and strolled over to the golem's hand, reaching upwards to try and proper grasp. There was nothing along the back of it's hand to hang onto, and the platform he was aiming for was too high for him to merely push himself upwards with his hands. Gallows was standing on his tip-toes, struggling.
Catherine gave him a leg-up herself, while Kaitlyn did her best to push the man up with her own small amount of strength. Gallows leaned the weight of his upper body onto Diablo's hand and swung a leg up as well, dragging himself, on his stomach, onto the smooth metallic surface. He had made it. The big Baskar waved to the others below him with a happy air and battled the slippery surface underneath him in order to stand up, making it eventually. Then, he looked towards the next part of his slow journey. Diablo's great arm was extended in suck a way that it could be scaled by a sure-footed person, provided they had the balance not to fall of themselves. Gallows, wisely, didn't trust himself enough to try it like that.
With the surface area of Diablo's shell being cooled down because of it's deactivation, Gallows got the idea that he should construct a pathway for himself up to the giant machine's shoulder, and search for the entry hatch from there. Below him, Catherine took Kaitlyn's hand and looked worried, slowly moving away from the golem. "Please get down from there, Gallows." She intoned. "We don't know when that thing will wake up again. What if it awakens when you are still on it?" Gallows grinned and gave her an 'A-OK' sign, telling her that he would be perfectly fine. He felt that he was onto something here.
The freezer doll came in useful at a time like this. He removed the small snowman toy from his inventory and got a firm grip on it in his hands. It felt cold, but the frost didn't penetrate any further than the outer felt layer of cloth, though it bore a heart of ice. Gallows had never really understood the origin of his toy's magical power, but really didn't care, as long as it did it's job. Holding it out in front of him, he pointed the small carrot-shaped nose of the doll at the golem's armor and focussed his spirit, which woke up the ice sprite hidden in the toy. It sprayed a light blue beam of frost straight at Gallows's floor, and the Baskar moved the beam up and around in a special way, forming a series of horizontal lines parallel to each other along the crimson monster's arm.
The lines became a scaffolding network of jagged shards of ice, clinging to the surface with a tenacious grip. The froze without the expulsion of water, the magically generated ice as dry as a bone. This was good, because it would not be slippery. Gallows just had to be careful not to expose any part of his skin to the surface of the ice, or else he would be welded there like somebody with their tongue stuck to a metal pole. Stepping forward, he set his foot upon the first step of ice, testing it to see if it would break, and reassured, put all of his weight onto the small platform. It held. Gallows sucked in a deep breath and leaned forward to take his second step, unconsciously reaching out to grasp a peak of ice for a secure handhold. He stopped himself just in time. That was a close call, he had nearly disregarded his own advice.
"Here, use these and don't squeeze anything too hard!" Virginia called as she picked up Clive's pair of mighty gloves, stuffing one into another so they would stick together, and tossed the piece of attire over to Gallows who nearly missed catching them. The priest slipped them on, despite the gloves being a little too small for him, and felt within his aura that his strength had increased slightly from the item, clenching and unclenching his fists a few times in order to get used to the feeling. He grabbed onto the small spire of ice, and then let go. His hand didn't cling to the surface as it would have without the gloves. Great, they actually worked! He climbed the rest of the way with a little haste, wanting to get off the ice stairway before it faded away. The power of the freezer doll was strong, but only temporary. Gallows stood still on the golem's shoulder to gather his bearings, as the ice became mere wisps of fog and departed, leaving nothing behind.
The little girl saw the ice dissipate and waft away in streams of white mist, cold and somehow refreshing. She let go of her mother's hand and ran over to the trailing cloud, taking pleasure in running through it and feeling the cold touch of an icy breath against her face. Having grown up in such a sheltered life in Filgaia, she had never felt cold like this before. It was fascinating. Kaitlyn fanned her hand through it and became disappointed when the mist evaporated into the atmosphere, and the white cloud she had been looking at had become clear. It revealed to her something unexpected. She blinked a couple of times as she looked up Diablo's opposite arm, the one Gallows had not chosen to climb upon. Then, she went back over to her mother, pointing out the object of her curiosity. "Something's glowing on the big monster's arm, Mama." Kaitlyn explained, gesturing to the golem. "It looks like the picture writing in Daddy's archymonology books."
Gallows sat down and leaned over as much as possible without the risk of falling off to see the symbols that Kaitlyn had noticed, getting a glimpse of something aqua-green and pulsing on an invisible surface suspended above the back of Diablo's left hand. The lights changed every so often, which suggested movement, but he couldn't see anymore so he called to the others for better information. "Hey guys, what is it? What do you see?" He looked for a way down from the silent red monstrosity, but going down would be a lot more dangerous than coming up. If he jumped, there was a chance he could break a leg or worse, so he had no choice but to stay put. He could see from an excellent vantage point most of the cavern they were in, and Jet and Clive's body lying peacefully on the ground. Virginia had Jet's head in her lap and she stroked his silver-white hair lightly as she waited and hoped for him to wake up. Gallows felt something depressing sink within him. Jet's aura had faded and had become faint that it was barely even there.
Holding Kaitlyn's hand firmly for her protection, Catherine moved over to Diablo's side and inspected the markings herself. They were angular and elaborate, though they seemed to bear meaning as they flickered from one symbol to the next every few seconds. Catherine inspected them closely, even going so far as to try and touch them herself, though they were way out of her reach. "I have seen this before." She announced, eliciting surprise from those who were conscious to hear her. "This is a runic script, in the language of the demon race. These symbols are common in some of the ruins with a direct connection to the Great War, though I am sad to say that I cannot read them myself." Looking up to where Gallows sat and catching his expression she added; "I studied this scripture when I was working with my father, if you're wondering where I learnt this."
Virginia glanced up from Jet for a moment to look sadly at Catherine, the drifter leader's usually determined visage filled with forlorn despair. "We've lost Jet and Clive," She said to the other three, "And I don't know what it was that Jet did, but it looked to be effective. Now that he's unconscious… what are we going to do?" Virginia closed her eyes and sighed. "I am the leader, so it's up to me to make the decision, right?" The girl shifted in her spot and dragged Jet's broken body into her lap, for he was a little smaller and lighter than she. For the first time Virginia actually noticed just how small he was, and how he had hidden that fact by talking big, acting big and fighting fiercely without complaint. The soul of an adult he might have had, but physically, he was still just a boy. And he needed proper medical attention as soon as possible.
That clinched it. Clive wasn't here to help and guide her anymore, but that didn't matter, she had to do this herself. It was her duty. Her responsibility. Her choice. She put her hand around his front and felt that some ribs had snapped from their place, and Jet grimaced from the touch, recoiling backwards into an even deeper unconsciousness. "Even if Clive's coma and Ravendor are inexplicably linked, I think Clive would agree with me when I say that getting out alive is better than finding out the truth. We have everybody here, we need to escape before that golem wakes up again!" This was what she had to do. She didn't want the deaths of any of her teammates on her conscience. Besides, they had Kaitlyn back, didn't they?
"We can't carry them both." Catherine argued softly in her own forceful fashion, against Virginia's decision. "And we won't leave either of them behind. Besides," She glanced back towards Diablo and felt a little shiver run down her spine, and recalled the look Ravendor had shot her when they eyes had met after eleven years of separation. It had said; 'You've found somebody else? I can't believe it…' It made her feel strange on the inside, and vehemently didn't want to meet the real Ravendor in person. "If we leave Ravendor with Diablo, he might find another and more dangerous way to kill us all. One that might involve innocent bystanders. It's better that we stop this, here and now."
"Aren't we innocent bystanders?" Gallows called from his perch on Diablo's shoulder, looking around for the entry hatch at the same time. He turned around and now had his back to the others. "I mean, I didn't really want to be dragged into all this mess. To save Clive and Kaitlyn, right, sure, I'd lay down my life for them in a jiffy, but nobody mentioned that more demons and machines of war were goin' to be in our gameplan." He turned back to them, looking serious, but then breaking out into a trademark Gallows grin. "Sorry if I'm being cynical, I'm just trying to fill the void with pessimism that Jet's being asleep has left with us." Virginia smiled when she heard this, and hugged the boy to her chest just a little bit tighter.
Kaitlyn was looking at the flickering runes with a wonderment that only a child could possess. There were three altogether, and constantly changing due to some kind of impetus. The first symbol paused for a very long time, while the other two matched up, and then flickered again. The little girl beamed with some kind of accomplishment and tugged on her mother's arm, pointing towards the golem. "Now it says it's M o'clock, Mama!" She declared, indicating the first rune that did indeed look somewhat like the letter 'M'. Gallows, being driven mad by wanting to see the writing for himself, tried to creep down Diablo's arm and got stuck halfway by fighting against gravity and what it would have him do, go splat at the bottom. He was now stuck there, clinging to the golem like a monkey on a coconut tree.
"M o'clock…?" Catherine murmured after hearing her daughter's words, narrowing her eyes as she raised a hand to her chin, unconsciously mimicking Clive's posture for whenever he was deeply thinking. It was funny, but thinking about that seemed to make her remember back to when she was just a little girl herself, when her father had shown her a very rare commodity in times like these, a repaired treasure from one of the ruins he had been to. It was an old, brass tarnished pocket watch, but unlike others of it's ilk, it had run on digital time. It had amazed her during her entire childhood, how the numbers seemed to change by themselves without anybody touching them. Her mind made the connection, and then went that one step further into speculation. Why would a golem need to keep track of the time, unless it was…
"Everybody get away from that thing!" She cried out suddenly, taking a step away. "That's not just regular runic script! It's a timer! Diablo is counting down to reactivate!" Her words spread like wildfire throughout the rest of their team. Virginia stood bolt upright and Gallows made a strangled yelping noise, probably in the worst position he could be in. Kaitlyn looked confused and afraid, not understanding what Catherine had said, but the tone itself had made it sound urgent. The ex-drifter shot a frightened look towards their two comatose companions, wondering how they were going to evacuate and carry them all at the same time. It would be impossible to bring both of them, but by the Guardians, and she had sworn this only moments ago, they weren't going to leave either one behind.
The estimated cool-down period and erasure of Jet's program rewriting rolled into a silent end, the three runic numbers matching up and hitting infinite zero. Steam rose from Diablo's vents and the aqua scripture flashed into a scarlet red before disappearing in a curt twinkle. It's crimson armor pulsed into red-hot heat once more, and with a twitching movement, it's left hand uncurled and hooked it's fingers into a claw, the giant groaning as it shifted into it's active mode. Gallows cried out as the armor he was clinging onto became as incinerating as the heat from a furnace, and he let go involuntarily, trying to get away from the burning. He fell backwards, but had fallen from a particularly low perch and only hurt his back mildly, grunting as the back of his head hit the floor. He rolled over, got up, and scuttled away.
Virginia found that she couldn't get up and escape without taking Jet with her, and if she did, she risked the chance of injuring him greatly. No, she just could not move. The drifter leader squeezed her eyes closed and shielded Jet's body with her own, choking out a small sob. Catherine and Kaitlyn just backed into the wall, stunned into silence. They didn't know if they should be afraid or not. Fearful for their friends, or course, but for themselves? Would Ravendor hurt them? Somehow, Catherine didn't think so.
As if on cue, Ravendor reappeared. His hologram was built up of mostly static, but it still contained his form and all the contempt hidden within. He opened his eyes, smiled, and said something that sounded smug, though it was drowned out by the constant sound of white noise and static in his vocal up-link. Catherine could pick out a few words, but that was all. The bandit leader didn't look upset in the least, as if Jet's hacking into Diablo's neural network had only been a mild bother. "Ý0Û (aÑñ؆ Gˆ ®Îd Òƒ Mé §ö È@$îl¥!" He declared with a hint of triumph, spacing his hands out from his sides. "Ì Wì|| $hðw ŸÕü wÞà† È|êvÊñ ŸËÁrš ؃ HÈ|| h@Š †åÜgH† Më!"
Flames erupted and burst into a violent pulsing life in each of Diablo's metal-plated fists. Similarly, the hologram of Ravendor seemed to gather some kind of dark energy in his static-affected hands. It was like a ball of electricity, and as the Maxwell Gang watched the fire and lightning form, it vanished abruptly from Ravendor's hands with an anticlimactic fizzle. What came next made up for it, though. The flames sizzling in Diablo's hands suddenly darkened to a burning blackness, the fire gaining an affinity of shadow. The two different powers had been merged as one. With a sadistic glint in his eye, Ravendor released the dark flames upon Virginia and the unconscious Jet, shaking his head with pity. He hated to shoot two lovebirds in a tree, but…
The fireball touched bitter frosted steel and burst into a rain of harmless little sparks and shadowy smoke, the warmth and darkness immediately drained by contact with an ancient and powerful weapon. Virginia, holding her breath and awaiting her inevitable fate, opened one eye hesitantly and wondered why she had not been killed yet. She saw red. A red coat, to be precise. Her heart leapt with a sudden rush of hope. "Clive?" She breathed, hardly daring to believe that he had woken up. He didn't answer, or recognize his name. Virginia's gaze was drawn to the object he held with both hands, a long and beautifully forged sword that made her shiver whenever she stared into the reflective light of it's blade for too long. Where on earth had Clive gotten a weapon like that?
"Virginia…" He said, and his voice sounded slightly different. It had not changed in tone or pitch, but was just… different. It sounded surer, and somehow, it was a voice that could be trusted, no matter where it came from. "Try and move Jet away from here. Take him over to Catherine and Kaitlyn. Be careful, make sure you do not jar his injuries." He brought his sword up a little into a more offensive attack position, the move an act of aggression against his new opponent. But even so, and he just couldn't help it, he adjusted his glasses as well. He frowned. "Ravendor, you sure have rubbed your good name in the dirt, haven't you?"
"…À† |ëÅš† Í w@š GÎVËN Å ñámÈ." Ravendor retorted through a haze of static and distortion, folding his arms. He noticed Clive's sword and sneered, forming a new ball of dark flames within Diablo's huge hands. Not too far away, Catherine looked upon this with fear, still amazed that her husband had sprung awake in such a short time, gripping the situation within a second. It was like he was entirely a different person. He had never had reflexes like that before. Ravendor was hiding his anger under a façade of apathy, and the only part of him showing the poison in his soul were his piercing green eyes. "ÑØ |öñGër Å $ñÏþëR âÑ¥mÔrë, Í §ëÈ." He extended his hand, which was only a little more than shapeless programming, some slight binary and programming showing through. "WhÖ árË ¥¤ü ñ0W, Ç|ïvë Wîñš|놆?"
Once more, his eyes seemed to show no flicker of recognition or remembrance of his name, his eyes, which had once been a cold blue, but was now of a deep mahogany coloring, a mix of ice blue and crimson red. He tightened the grip on his sword, Kuronegaiken.
"I… am the swordsman." He said.