As daylight broke out across the lands the Maxwell Gang crept across the shifting desert sea. Ahead of them in the middle of the sea near to Ark of Destiny a rock formation they had seen all too often on their travels, but this time they see it with reason. The mysterious Twilight Moon was there. The Ruins of Lunar buried in the rocks.
"So this is the Ruins of Lunar?" Gallows wondered as he and Emilia peered out the front of the ship. Jet was already on the roof ready to jump out and secure the ruins for them. Virginia along with him as Clive was at the cannons. They were waiting for the Ark of Destiny or Nobuo to attack. They did not want that, but they had to be ready.
They came to the single rock and the passage downward in it without hazard. It was only a quick matter of time that they all were within the downward path into the planet after leaving the craft in a secure position. Torches lined the walls and lit the way for the group of five. They came to a dead-end though.
"Now where?" Gallows wondered.
Clive went to looking around the room as did the others. Jet stood back and just watched them and looked around from afar. It was Virginia who found the secret pass when she felt the cool air from inside coming out. With some carefully placed bombs Clive had blown it opened and the group was on their way to the object of their search. And, they spot the trunk when they come to a vacant room large enough to fit at least three groups of them.
"There it is." Jet moves forward to open the chest.
"Not so fast Enduro." Before anyone can move the room is filled to the brim with flames.
As they die down the group find that between them and the chest now stood Nobuo and a man with true orange-red hair. A black collared shirt and beige pants make up the man's fashion as a smug expression takes his face. He stands ready with the strange gauntlets on his hands. "Nobuo." Clive simply says uneasily.
"I highly advise that you do not attempt to interfere with my desires again." Nobuo warned.
"So...who's your little friend?" Jet scoffed.
"Oh, right." Nobuo faces the second man." This is Blaze. Why don't you six get acquainted." Nobuo backs away as Blaze moves with speed forward sending waves of flames outward at the group causing them to stumble back. None of them are harmed though.
"This guy can shoot fire!" Gallows said in a panicked voice.
"He must be an elemental." Emilia noted.
"An elemental?" Clive wondered.
She nodded. "It's the embodiment of an element. Basically, someone created him...and he was bound to the element of fire and Moor Gault." She explained. "I read in a book somewhere about it...A sad attempt to give guardians strength. They said that all elementals and any record of them was gone to this world though."
Blaze lets out a cackle. "Let's get this barbeque started."
"Step back." Jet warned cautiously.
Gallows came to his side. "He looks unpredictable. We should stay on guard." He warned.
Jet jumps aside as a flame comes for them. Gallows is torched. "Where was your guard?" Jet scoffed. He didn't have time as Blaze was still advancing. He takes out his ARM, and fires, but Blaze fires outward at them. Jet tosses his ARM aside when he realizes two things. A) it's metal and conducts heat so it was starting to burn his gloves, and B) if that fire gets close enough his own rounds will explode on him.
Gallows in annoyance lunges forward, but is blown away with a strong fire wave that flings him to the wall. Emilia draws her blade and charges forward only to be met with a blade of fire from Blaze. The two blades are equal and that leaves Blaze to a last ditch effort to kick her away from him. Jet takes up his boomerang and throws it only for it to be stopped by a line of fire from his hands.
Jet catches his boomerang as it comes back and all stand in silence. Virginia looks around the room. "Where's Nobuo?"
Jet flinches. "Damnit! He's got the Twiligh-"Before his words are finished the room is engulfed in a bright white light.
Opening her blinded eyes Emilia stares out the window on a rainy night from a room engulfed in dark. "What...why is this place...so...familiar?" Her attention is drawn to the floor where a corpse lay. Upon closer inspection she is horrified to find it to be Gallows with a slit neck lying in a pool of his own blood. "N-no," She steps back with trembling lip. "Just...like...Ed." Her foot hits something. She glances downward to see Clive in the same state. "No...I...Why?" She falls to the floor in confusion.
Jet's eyes snap to attention. He finds himself in a wheat field looking into the eyes of Virginia. He looks beyond to see the rest at the sandcraft. "Huh? Where are...we going?"
"We? Not you, Jet." Virginia replies with a grimace. "Don't be a stupid fool. You know why we're leaving you. You're a good for nothing punk. No one really could ever want to call you a friend. Your own family—had you had one—would spit on you now, you know?" She turns her back flinging her braid over her shoulder with a final statement. "See you in Hell, Jet." She huffs away to join the rest.
His friends becoming vague memories in the field until he no longer can see them. "Wh-what? Wait! Come back!" He runs forward only to fall in the mud. "I don't...want to be alone anymore. I can't...do this alone." He said breaking free of denial.
Clive blinked. "What are you doing?" His wife was quickly packing a bag up. "Catherine?"
"What does it look like? I don't see what I ever saw in you." She noted as she continued packing in a rush. "I should have never married a man like that father of mine."
"Catherine?"
"You're never home, and you made me ashamed to be your wife. You became tainted...and I will not have my name bashed because of some murderer of a husband that never gives me what I need." She closes her case. "If you hadn't guessed it by now Clive, I'm leaving you."
"What?"
"For Roykman, I always found him far sexier than you."
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Sorry, but, I can't see Roykman as a sex symbol. I just feel disgusted saying that.
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Gallows sat up. He was at his village. In some priest clothing he had never seen before. His freedom gone. He turned to run, but he could not get away. His walls of freedom closing on him.
The sun painted the ground a vibrant orange. Virginia stood on the balcony of her room in Boot Hill. Looking downward on Jet. "Jet? What are you doing down there?"
"Didn't I tell you never to speak to me again?" He spat. He grunts. "Go to Hell Virginia."
"Jet! How could you say such a thing?" She pleaded.
He gave her a vacant glare. "I'm going. Hopefully we never meet again. I'm going to marry Sakura, and we'll bask in the fact that you will die a lonely old woman who is just a plain and stupid fool. You aren't a very good person at all. Not rich in personality either." He grumbled. "Your father told me that he wants you to leave him the Hell alone as well. That's why you will never see either of us again. I doubt even the others will want to see you after this."
She stood there silently with tears slowly dying. Closing she takes a deep breath. "Jet."
"What do you want?" He snaps as he turns back around.
"I hope you and Sakura do have a great life together. It's only fitting for two people who love each other." Virginia says with a smile. "I don't care if you wish to leave me and never see me again. If you think of me as a fool. I was just lucky that I got the chance to know you. That I could love you. That's all I care about." She closes her eyes.
She opens them to Jet who stands in a vast wheat field as the wind dances across it. He does not pay her any mind since he is facing the other direction. He lowers his head. "The truth is...I don't mind so much...I want to be alone. I like it better this way anyway." Before a word leaves her lips the two stand before Blaze.
"What was that about, Jet? You wish to be alone?"
He glances at her, and then at Blaze. "We can talk about that later." He said forming a stern face.
"Let's finish our fight then." Blaze simply said as the two men run at one another and throw two equal punches hitting the adjacent cheeks. Falling backward the two stand up straight. Jet goes for his dagger, but a sword of flame stabs his shoulder first. Jet's arm is thrown forward countless times as Blaze dodges each swing of the dagger. A ball of fire sends Jet to his knees dropping his weapon. Blaze uses his ability to overwhelm Jet with so much fire the smoke gets to the android's lungs in no time at all. In near suffocation Jet falls forward. He is saved by the same kick that throws him into the wall. Totally out of it he fails to get back up.
"Jet!" Virginia looked to his limp body.
She cringes when he stirs slowly in a struggle. "Using fire...seems...like cheating." Jet comments. He stands up fully and tosses his boomerang at Blaze. The weapon misses as Blaze runs past it and kicks Jet into the wall. He does a backflip as the boomerang returns and wails Jet in the gut. Out of breath Jet finally falls to the floor in defeat.
"Look at him fall. Nobuo promised me a good fight...but he sure underestimated you." Blaze cackled as he raised his palm ready to flame Jet. "Time for barbequed Drifter." Before he can do anything he is thrown into the nearby wall. As he looks to what did so to him he is met with a kick to the face from Virginia's boot.
"Don't touch Jet." She warned. Blaze moves forward only to be hit four times in a series by Virginia and then shot by her ARM. Soon Blaze is found in the same defeated form as Jet. Without a second thought Virginia helped the slowly recovering Jet up.
"Uh...did you just do what I think you did?" He questioned.
"Uh...I guess I'm good with my feet?" She laughs. "I thought you knew that?"
"Now I do." He actually lets a grin come from his lips. He fights it back as the two turn back to the matters at hand.
"We should help the others." She comments. "How do we get them free?"
"I think I understand this. In Twilight Sun we saw something we would want, and to get out...we had to not want it, right? So...here it would seem...we see something we do not desire...and to get out we have to accept it."
"That would make sense."
"So...Twilight Sun and Moon turn our desire, hopes, and love against us?" Jet said off to the side.
Clive blocked the doorway from his wife. "You can't leave!"
"Yes I can!"
"What about Kaitlyn?"
"Who cares?"
"Clive!" Clive looked to Jet who stood across the room. "Just let the woman go. If you're confident, you'll know she'll just come back anyway."
Clive stared at the young man. He nodded and moved aside. "Smart words."
"I learn from the only green haired man I know." Jet noted as they met up with Virginia and Gallows. "So...who's left?"
"We need to find Nobuo. Who can help Emilia?" Clive said as he loaded his ARM.
"I'll do it." Gallows said.
Clive nodded. "We'll try to find that guy. Hurry up and find us." At that he, Virginia, and Jet left the room for Nobuo.
Emilia was a statue. She stared at the lifeless forms of the people she was slowly coming to care for. The Maxwell Gang. She could not even blink.
"So...this is what you see?" Gallows said trying to find the best words to say and failing.
"Gallows." She turns back to the dead. "All the people I begin to care for die...It's my fault."
"So...someone you know...died like this?" He stood there a moment. "You want to change this?"
She stands. "I can't change this." She comments. "It isn't my fault. It's okay...that the people I care for die. It's only fate. It's just not always my fault." She admits. "Can we go?"
The two run up to the other three. "Where's Nobuo?" Gallows questioned.
"He got away again." Jet kicked a rock aside when Virginia said that.
"We don't know where he is. We just know he's kicking our asses." Jet grumbled. "Damnit! If I hadn't been beaten so badly by Blaze..."
"The next one on our list is Twilight Gemini." Clive noted. "All we have to do is go there."
"We don't even know where it is." Gallows countered.
"But we sure as Hell can find out, right?" Emilia interjected.
Clive nodded. "We will find the location." He said with confidence.
It was Clive who took the helm instead of going with the auto-pilot tonight. The moon came in through the openings allowing faint light in. The lights were left off tonight to escape unseen by Ark of Destiny. Clive glanced to the back of the current bridge area where the helm was placed and the access ways were placed to the gun and harpoon. Leaning against each other was Virginia and Jet in a quiet sleep. Jet bandaged up and treated for burns against protest that he need not any care. Virginia argued that he did. Clive and Gallows told him to just shut up and do something that doesn't really take much out of him.
He grinned as he watched the two. While he was eavesdropping on the two sleeping young 'ens Gallows and Emilia sat in the kitchen. A quiet air to the place.
"Emilia...who was it...that died like that?"
She remained silent. "It...doesn't matter right now."
"I was just asking."
"What happened to your parents?"
"I don't know."
"See...now we're even."
Quiet again. "Emilia?"
"What's up?"
"You still owe me some girl advice."
"Maybe someday I'll give you more." She sighed. "I must be really tired." She trotted off.
He just blinked.