"NDS: Book 12—Neon: Chapter 92: Moment of Silence"

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Well, I did tone the gore down. In my mind it comes so vivid for some reason. I was going to go more in depth to how the sound of the skull busting was, and more detail on the initial crush, and then more about how the red flowed through the mechanical fingers, but…er, I left it in the PG-13 version, instead of the gory R one. I think this is a PG-13 fic, so I have to keep it somewhere near that, even though I tend to forget about ratings. I haven't said naughty naughty words yet, and I don't plan to, because NDS was never like that. It's the spirit of NDS that I feel I should not corrupt with sex and bad words, even though I would think those bad words. Still, the worst word that is ever used in the original NDS is bastard. Here I think it was shit or crap. One of those. By now you can sort of see that Books 12-15 are a lot darker than books 1-11. Well, now, most of our heroes are really making that transition to being a true adult anyway, and I just killed off the only adult main character (Clive), so…yeah.

Anyway, I realized something I forgot about in both versions of NDS, and that is because it was a small tiny side note on my outline that ran vertically and is unnoticeable, but it was meant to be a thing that should have come up. Being too late to go back and rewrite it, I will just tell you it. When Samu and Virginia went to shut down Neon City and turn off the energy, the truth is revealed that the City's power is supplied by the Twilight Lone. They would thus destroy it at the same time as shutting the power off. How such a big plot device was forgotten about, I don't know, but, it's needed to be known so as to establish something later.

I see, Clive's death did not mean much. I know I was sort of sorry for killing him off. I know however that in Book 14 you will find something to anger you, so, I'll wait to see your response then.

Being that I've only written two chapters of the original Book 13, you might have to expect less chapters and less frequent updates, but…we'll see.

Okay, I've talked too much. Let's move on.

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Off the coast from the demolished city whose smoke still went skywards was the new sandcraft made by Emilia, currently dubbed the SAND. The warm winds that hit the Maxwell Gang did little but blow their clothing about. All of them, including Pike, but excluding Jet Enduro, stood on the wooden deck platform Emilia had built on the front of the ship.

Sakura trembled in fear. "Where…is my father?" She anxiously questioned with fear in her voice.

"Could even Jet or Clive survive that?" Pike questioned staring at the fading explosions as the final building, the tallest, sunk into the earth. It seemed impossible for a human to have been able to survive not only the explosions, but also the debris. Of course, Pike had to remind himself that Jet was not the average human, and neither was Clive really. Pike simply looked aside to the others as they watched the City's demise.

A sound was heard as rubber clanged against the metal railing to the deck. Everyone quickly looked to see an exhausted Jet pull himself up. He had jumped as the ship left the City, and had latched onto the ship in whatever way he could. He was too tired though from the battle with Ken and the run to the ship, so he had waited, hanging from the ship's side, before climbing up now.

"Jet!" Virginia exclaimed with joy as she ran to him and gave him a strong hug, despite the blood he wore that rubbed off, and despite the pain she probably gave him giving him the hug. After seeing that Jet almost fell off the ship due to her hug, she let go and helped him over the rail.

Everyone looked eagerly to the place he had come up, but what they were looking for did not show, and Jet knew what it was they were waiting to see. "Clive could not have survived Neon's death." He simply said.

"How can you even joke about that?" Gallows bellowed. "How could you say that he didn't survive?"

"Yeah!" Emilia backed Gallows up, equally offended by Jet's behavior. "I could expect maybe hearing that from the old Jet, but not from you."

Jet simply gave them an angry glare that shut everybody up. He calmly walked forward a step, weakly. He closed his eyes as he thought about what to say next. "I'm being serious." He remarked as they watched him in silence. Waiting to hear him out. "As I fell from Hawthorne, I watched Clive for the last time…the look he gave me," Jet's hands formed into balls. "It made me understand everything."

Jet shook his head.

"Clive, was never expecting to return from Neon City." Jet notified them with a neutral expression on his face. He opened his eye to look at them as Virginia remained standing at his side. "He came here to die. To die in order to cleanse the world of the sins he created. And since it was his sins, and he started it, he had to get rid of the last person who held knowledge of the sin…which was himself."

Sakura vehemently shook her head as drops of salty water flung about from her tightly shut eyes. "B-But…you…" She formed a scowl as her eyes sprung violently open and her index finger pointed Jet out. "You promised me that you would save him!" She accused. She was quick to close the distance between them, but once she got to him, all she could do was try to punch him, but she was so weak about it that she just flung her sorrowful fists at his chest. He took the weak punches without flinching, and as if they weren't really happening. "You promised to save my father!" She screeched. "I believe you!" She shouted harshly. "I believed you!" She repeated. "How can you break that promise?"

"Sakura…I…" Jet tried to defend himself and explain everything, but there were too many words to be said. Too many things that were happening in the background that even he was not sure about. He had not known who Ken was really. All he knew was what he overheard when he got to the roof, and what Clive allowed him to see.

All Sakura could do was break down. She couldn't coordinate a punch any longer, and she instead fell into Jet's chest. Pressing her face into his chest as she clutched onto his bloody shirt. "You…promised…" She muttered as her anger left to be replaced by grief.

Adven slowly walked over and gingerly took her hands off of Jet's shirt. All in the process Adven stared at Jet's eyes. He had a look of sympathy and understanding, and took the crying Sakura into his own arms to handle.

"The truth is…" Jet softly spoke. He wasn't sure if the others heard him or not, but it didn't matter. They heard him anyway. "I had no choice." Slowly Jet sort of toppled backwards, but he didn't, and instead began to walk to the door inside without any eyes following him except those of his betrothed. Once inside he walked the two steps inside as if he had no knowledge of steps, and this was his first time. He found the staircase that led to a deck below where their new rooms were. They all had basically their own rooms now, but they were small as well, with mainly only room for a bed.

Virginia had watched him from the door from outside as he made his way down the stairs. By the time he was at the bottom, she was at the top. When he reached his room she was at the bottom, and once he closed the door she gingerly came to his door. She did nothing but softly run her hand down it as he lied on his bed within the dark room. She sat herself in front of the door and wrung her hands.

Emilia meanwhile sat down at the helm feeling this all to be surreal. She slowly made her adjustments to the instruments as Gallows and Pike entered, leaving only Sakura and Adven out on the deck where she wept into his shirt. Drying her tears as he ran his hands along her arms, as if warming her up, but not. Emilia prepped the ship, and made her announcement: "To…Humphrey's Peak…then…" She trailed off as the ship went silent aside from the noises the ship itself made.