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"NDS: Book 15—Wings of the Raven: Chapter 109: Rebirth"
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I've been updating less and less often. I'm sorry about that. Some reason I just have been getting tired all too easy by the end of the day. While school hasn't gotten in my way of writing, I think waking up for school has. But I sleep the recommended eight hours! I just don't get it…sigh…We're so close to the end too. I'd say five more chapters after this and it will be all over. For good this time. Now, I know you've been waiting on the edge of your chair to see how Adven fairs and all, so let's begin…
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The blast of purple negative energy expanded far enough by now that it began to dissipate and fade into the air. The dirt still being flung from the circular explosion. Sakura raised an arm to block her face as the first wave of dirt did pass her by. Finally it settled and all that was left was the blast that only had begun to fade.
"Adven Bok…" Sakura remarked.
"He didn't have enough in him to win."
"I know…he's become too positive…for his negative attacks to be worth anything." Sakura confirmed with shut eyes. Adven Bok wasn't a body and mind of negative emotions anymore, not like he had been when he first learned the attack. She had to wonder if he knew that or not?
Sakura looked to the blast as she watched a silhouette of a man with flapping hair due to the wind walk towards her. The purple energy seemed to move around him, like he were water and the blast oil. Gear, inflicted with some noticeable damage, but nothing serious, stared her in the eyes as he left the dying blast behind him. Walking towards her.
"His actions…while pointless and pathetic, makes him worthy in my eyes. His death was noble." Gear remarked.
"I am aware." Sakura simply replied, not batting a lash. Just returning the same cold stare Gear gave her. It amused him that she did though. Gear came to a stop halfway between the blast and her. It was at that time the blast died and Adven's body stood at the center of it. A second past as a wind moved the grass, and Adven fell to the ground in defeat. His breathing shallow and barely there.
Gear looked at Sakura more seriously. "I'm going to allow you and your child to live." He remarked to Sakura's confusion. "That will be his final gift to you."
"He is not dead." Sakura replied firmly. "Emotional energy attacks cannot directly kill."
"He's not dead now," Gear began, "but he will be soon enough." Gear slowly turned to look back at the collapsed Adven. He began a slow walk towards his previous enemy. "You used everything you could on me and still fell. At least no one can say you never tried." He stopped just next to Adven to look down upon the back of Adven's fallen body.
"No!" Sakura cried. "Stop it now!" She demanded with fear and worry. "Spare his life…and…and I will…help you…" She looked away in shame.
"That is a pathetic offer." Gear replied, raising his arm high in order to strike downward. Something grabbed his wrist though. He gave a bit of a scoff.
"Gear, stop as you are now."
Gear slowly turned around to face the woman with the brown hair that said such a foolish request. Looking into the eyes of the woman he almost married earlier this day. "The would-be widow." He gave her an amused look as he ripped his arm free of her bind. "It's so sad that you can't be a widow, nor a wife."
Virginia kept up her strong gaze of determination. She had spent so much time thinking about what to do, she had been letting the chance to even act leave her. So she followed Adven's stubborn decisions and it led her here.
Breaking her stern face, Virginia laughed in his face. "Weak words from you." She glared at him. "Someone who says they are so strong…"
Gear bent a brow as he watched her in silence. Finally anger took hold. "…I will kill you before I finish off Adven."
"Fight as you may. I will strike back."
Gear formed a fist and quickly swung at her, hoping to obliterate her in one punch, but just as the punch came close to hitting her on the forehead it stopped. "What the…?" Gear looked at his fist that trembled out of some weird emotion. With all his might and will, it was not going to touch Virginia this time around. Throwing a punch with his other hand, the same response came. Virginia just stood still through all of it, never flinching. "Why…can't I punch you?"
Virginia stared him in the eyes. "Because Jet could never punch me." Without a moment to wait, Virginia sent a high kick aimed at Gear's chin, sending the man into the air before falling backward. Wobbling to stand back up again, Gear is then hit by four consecutive jabs from Virginia, which she finishes with a roundabout kick, sending him back to the dirt.
"Damnit…Why does one part of me not let me kill you? It's foolish!" He declared. "That's not true at all!"
Virginia looked down upon him. "Then why? And you admit it as well. Who are you really?"
"I've told you…I am Gear." He looked away from her.
"But all you are is pieces of other people. You hold other people's dreams and continue them. You haven't lived long enough to understand this world or have any view of it that is your own." She explained. He was a relative newborn. He was born as he is with nothing of his own.
Gear would not succumb to her vile mind games. "Think of it as a multiple-choice test. That is what I had going through my head at birth. I chose from the five available answers on each question and became Gear." He paused to glare at her. "I chose who I am!"
She scoffed. "When I was born I was given a fill-in-the-blank test. A limitless supply of answers to fill in as I went. You only had what few choices you did, and that is why, you can never be your own person." She placed her foot near to his body as a threat. "You aren't alive."
"And I disagree."
Virginia went in to strike, but Gear jumped back and landed on his feet.
"I am not Jet." Gear remarked.
"The way you look, the moves Adven told me you used. You chose to be Jet in that much."
"I chose his strength. Nothing more."
"Lies!" With enough strength behind her, Virginia charged at Gear. Once she was close to him, she performed a backflip kick to his face that sent him back in a stumble. As she landed, he fell to the ground again; his nose bleeding all over him. It was quiet for a moment as Gear seethed with anger. "The reason you wish to continue Nobuo's goals…is because you are jealous of Jet."
Sakura stood on edge, watching her friend face Gear. She could not believe the strength Virginia had in her. Not recalling ever seeing it before when they had fought. It made Sakura hate more and more that she couldn't do the same. She was so weak. She even said she would help Gear instead of fighting him. Where had all her nerve gone? When she was in Neon…she had all the bravado she could ever need. Now she had nothing. It was a feeling of shame she could never forget now. She could not even protect the man she loved from death. It was Virginia who saved him. Sakura disgusted herself.
Gear slumped his shoulders. His anger and thirst to get the attack made against him disappeared. Suddenly he burst out in a laughter that took the two women by surprise. After what seemed like forever, it died. He wiped the blood from his face and looked to Virginia with a wild eye. "You're right. I am jealous of Jet."
"Then leave the desire to rid the world of humans behind. Seek redemption and not genocide."
"I can't put off the deaths of humans." Gear replied. "It's too late for that. People must learn the punishment for their actions," he explained. "I must be the teacher that who must be ruthless in his teachings so that they might realize they are the real evil in this world, and not myself." Gear stood up on his feet. "This, is a choice Gear has made for himself."
"What reason are people evil?" Virginia argued.
"They are evil for they have emotions. Nobuo was shunned so severely it made him quest endlessly to put an end to humanity. Humans drove him to that." Gear believed that emotions made the worst out of people. "Generator Eon's creator was betrayed by a human because they put love before duty. Hawthorne made Generator Eon and offered it to the humans in order to rejuvenate Filgaia. In the end…because of the emotions in one human girl and her lover, humanity was screwed over. Humanity would suffer longer because two people decided their lives were more important. You know all of this. I know based on Jet's memories that you have even suffered due to emotions." The gray-headed male looked at her with a fiery determination. "Emotions control humans in every way!"
"But you're human too!" She declared. "You let the same emotions use you!"
"Which is how I know they are evil. That is why Nobuo said he would kill himself after he killed all on Filgaia. It is what I intend as well."
Seeing now way of breaking through to him, Virginia began a sprint for Gear. Her leg lashing out in a kick for him, but his body moving aside and catching it. With an upward motion he threw her to the air as she flipped before flopping onto the ground in pain. She slowly attempted to stand up as she pushed with all four appendages she could.
"Jet will not be holding me back this time!" He warned, but his raised fist, just like when he went to finish off Adven, came to a halt. A strong hand wrapping around his forearm. Gear looked and saw Sakura still standing where she had been, so he had to wonder who was left.
"It seems that," Gear's eyes sprung wide, "that I still do hold you back."
Before Gear could reply, Jet tossed the man aside and onto the ground. Jet covered in some minor wounds, now wore clean clothes, ones that he wore the time Virginia met him on that train. His outreached hand covered in a glove waited for her.
Slowly, with hesitation, Virginia placed her hand in his and he helped her to her feet. "J…Jet!" The woman threw her body into Jet's own, letting a waterfall of tears unleash onto his coat. Her arms tightly wrapping his body. Sakura, who had the time to see him arrive, shed tears. She had thought him to be dead.
"Our wedding won't be stopped." Jet simply remarked. "It won't be ruined by someone like him."
"You…You idiot!" She cried. "Like I care about that right now!" She let a smile fall on her lips as she took this brief moment to hold him for what could be the last time. Gear was still there, and Filgaia was still in danger. For the moment however, there was something she could be happy about.