Chapter 4: Meeting the Machine hr

A/N: There are little footnotes that look like this "(#)" where the "#" is a number. Go down to read the footnote. It will help in the future and stuff when it gets more confusing. hr

Briona melted away into the darkness and sped away towards Jeice and Scarlet. When Briona got there, the two seemed to be arguing over a spell Jeice had cast.

"I was being careful. I couldn't have been more careful." Jeice complained.

"If I was punished for murder, what do you think messing with time will get you?"

"Who did you murder anyways?" Jeice suddenly asked.

"That's not the point. You're still young, don't do these stupid things."

"What did Jeice do now?" Briona glared at Jeice.

"He summoned something, but he called this something from the future," Scarlet sighed.

"I didn't mean to." Jeice said, looking really innocent.

"Do you know how our Lord punished me?" Briona asked.

"No, how?" Jeice said, perking up and leaning forward. Briona never really did talk about the past.

"He took away Yoko," Briona said. "And from years of hunting the Damned, He has given Yoko back to me."

At that moment, a wormhole opened up and a figure calmly walked out of it.

"Whoa, is that what I summoned?" Jeice asked.

"No, I am Elias "the Machine" Machina and I don't serve anyone. Where am I?" the figure asked.

"This is Tokyo in the year 2005, and we are trying to find out why he over there summoned you," Briona said, pointing at Jeice.

"What! What did I do?" Jeice asked, looking really innocent.

"Well, let me show you." Scarlet said.

Suddenly, visions flashed through everyone's minds.

Flashback sort of thing…

Jeice was kneeling on the ground with a piece of chalk in hand. (This is sort of like alchemy in Fullmetal Alchemist, but bear with me…) He drew a circle on the ground and inscribed ancient symbols and geometric shapes inside and around the circle. Then, Jeice took a blade and slashed his fingertip. Blood dripped down Jeice's finger and hit the circle. At that moment, Jeice started chanting in the old forgotten language mention in the second chapter(1). Just after Jeice was done chanting, Scarlet came out of the shadows and grabbed Jeice roughly by the neck and pinned him to the wall of the alley they were in.

"What the HELL ARE YOU DOING!" Scarlet yelled.

"Summoning something." Jeice said weakly.

"YOU KNOW YOU'RE SUMMONING SOMETHING FROM THE FUTURE! HOW CAN YOU BE SO STUPID!" Scarlet fumed.

"I don't know, I wasn't thinking," Jeice gasped for breath.

Scarlet let down Jeice, and calmed down a bit. At about this time, Briona entered the alley and the vision faded.

End flashback thing

"You mean this child got me here?" The Machine asked.

"Yea, mostly," Scarlet answered.

"What do you mean 'mostly'?"


(1) The language is now going to be called Ghost-script.