Last real chapter about time... right after this one is pretty much epilouge chapter telling what everyone did after the fact... sorta... anyway I can't say I'm too happy with this chapter, I had to kill a couple of people off and it wasn't an easy thing to do so I ended up writing a few lines then taking a break a lot until I finally buckled down tonight and finished it... but yeah parts of this chapter just annoy me... but here it is anyway and I think it;s the longest chapter too.
Jenna started to chuckle "You see Christine, I'd like you to meet my new guardian ghost, I'm giving my usual one a break, oh that's right you've met this guy before, Hao Asakura."
"There's no way Hao would let you use his spirit!" Christine said knowing Hao would use as many people as he could to achieve his goal but people using him would be off limits.
"Well, it's not like he's here by will, his spirit is strong but father was able to bind it pretty good, at least it is for now, once he realizes we got rid of a pest with him he can't be the least bit upset right?" Jenna smirked "just leave them in that cage boys, it'll bind their powers, you're all welcome to go back to the others, remember don't tell them I'm going to jump the gun on the plans, I'll tell them later."
"Scared Christine?"
"Yes." Christine admitted "Who in my position wouldn't be, I'm a kid and my life is on the line here, but since I know my life is on the line, it'll only make me more encouraged to beat you. Hao is a skilled shaman but I don't see his skills as a ghost that's bond being very helpful, he doesn't have fighter skills he has shamanic skills, those won't help you, because Elizabeth has fighter skills."
"God damn it, God damn it!" Kennard hissed "This fucking cage makes it so we can't use our powers, Christine you better win because I can't get you out of this unless we get out."
"Come on Christine you can do this!" Blake said, he knew the stakes were high but he had to encourage her it was the only thing he could do in a situation like that, and a part of him really did believe she could do it
"Yeah you heard the boy, kick ass you can't leave me alone with these nuts!" Hilda cheered
"Hey, you think we might be able to let her use some of our furyoku like everyone did for the Asakura boy?" Aaralyn asked Remington
"Well I remember reading something about cages like this way back when, but I don't remember what the restrictions were, it's worth a try though."
Everyone else tried also knowing Christine's furyoku was about average if not a bit under average it would provide a very good boost.
It was a lucky break as it worked, Christine felt considerably lighter and now even less scared, everyone's support and well wishes, their hopes, dreams and even fears, she could feel it all.
"Don't get cocky over this, they can't give you much to make much of a difference because giving too much would kill them, that Yoh boy had hundreds of people behind him every little bit of course helped, in your case a mere five people can give you a small burst only adding about half of what you had, still nothing compared to my years of training." Jenna smirked "so are we going to get this over with or not?" she asked
"Alright then, if you insist on fighting." Christine had just gotten those words out of her mouth; Jenna really must have been ready for things to start before right after Christine said that Jenna had already attacked, planning to kill with one hit of her sword, in regular circumstances, it might have just killed Christine, somehow she was able to evade the blunt of the attack.
"Not bad, I see you picked up a bit form the others, namely Elizabeth's skills as a fighter, won't help you for long." Jenna smiled "Give me your best shot."
Elizabeth once again took more control than Christine had; Elizabeth was smart enough to know that Jenna would only allow Christine to attack her like that if she was planning to recoil.
Christine acted like she was going to attack low, but quickly attacked high as soon as Jenna made a move low, before Jenna could react again Christine was able to get her off her feet.
Christine hadn't been able to really do this by skill as a shaman alone and not by dumb luck before so obviously it slowed her reaction time down long enough for Jenna to get back on her feet. Jenna starting randomizing her slashes so they were a bit more unpredictable, but they were also less accurate and a bit easier to block at this cost, Christine did manage to get a few minor slashes on her arms from them however but she couldn't allow the bit of stinging to get to her.
"They trained her pretty good." Kennard sneered staring at Jenna "Should have known it would going to end up with a match between her and the girl I promised to take care of, shit."
Blake eyed Kennard with curiosity "Jenna's his younger sister." Aaralyn said quietly
"JENNA!" Kennard yelled
"What do you want you filthy traitor?" Jenna yelled back not taking her attention from the fight
"Jenna you don't have to do this!"
"Yes I do, I'm doing it because I'm loyal to my family unlike some of us who couldn't even stay around for their baby sister!"
"You still can't understand why I didn't stick around? Are you that devoted to fighting for a feud that should have died out years ago, are you willing to kill someone who didn't ask to be a part of it all just because you were told it would be your job to do so? Jenna if you're so loyal to family, Christine's family damn it and you're old enough to think for yourself, do you really want to run around the world with the blood of a child on your hands?"
"I don't have to listen to you!" Jenna yelled, she had also managed to knock Christine off her feet, and had her sward right at Christine's neck so that if she move3d even one bit she was a good a dead.
"You don't think I'll do it do you? You think I'm really a soft person like you."
"No Jenna I think you're a human, I hope you're a human I hope that you haven't been raised to be a heartless killing machine for old causes!"
"My cause is for Hao!"
"Hao is dead!"
"Only for 500 more years!"
"You won't gain a thing from him then"
"Shut-up!" Jenna forgot all about using her sword and started to choke Christine; it wasn't hard for her to over power Christine seeing as she was in her twenties and Christine was only 14 and had the body of a 14 year old girl. Christine's oversoul had been broken because of this.
"After I finish you off I'm killing Kennard and the others, you people have been an annoyance to our cause for all too long!" Jenna hissed
Christine gasped for air, and tried to move as much as she could but nothing was working. Jenna had stopped choking her and now was just starting to repeatedly punch her in the face "Why did you get the gift? Why was someone as unworthy as you able to inherit the gift of seeing into Hao's mind? You didn't even like the man, and you couldn't even put it too good use!" Jenna said this in between punches, Christine's lip had been busted in the mists of them, Christine didn't even have the strength left to hardly move after being choked she was still trying to breathe right again.
"Damn it!" Blake cussed he was going to try anything at this point to get to Christine "I can't lose her!"
All of a sudden the cage disappeared; Jenna had broken her own oversoul, which must have been where the control of the cage was coming from. Blake didn't pay any attention to anything else and just ran straight to Christine pushing Jenna out of the way, he had expected more of a fight from Jenna but she only stayed frozen where Blake had pushed her.
Christine coughed weakly, after being choked and then swallowing a considerable amount of her own blood from where her lip had been busted this wasn't avoidable. "Christine, are you alright?" Blake asked her whipping some of the blood off of her face with his sleeve
"Y-Yes." Christine began to cough more "Jenna stopped herself." Blake looked over at Jenna who actually looked like she was crying but he didn't gaze at her for long before bringing his attention back to Christine. "Anything broken?" Christine shook her head. Blake took off his jacket and wrapped it around her, and picked her up. Christine was so exhausted she couldn't help but fall asleep with in a few seconds.
"Just who the hell do you think you are?" Blake stared at Jenna who was indeed bawling like a baby, the others had now joined Blake standing next to him. Aaralyn of course was crying a bit mostly from fear Remington of course was patting her on the back trying to convince her things would be alright now, Hilda looked like she would jump Jenna at any second despite Jenna's sobbing, and Kennard just kept staring at Jenna.
"You, you fucking people…" Jenna hissed "her god dammed eyes, why'd I have to look at her fucking eyes."
"Hey what's all the commotion out here about?" a male voice in the distance said, Kennard stared off into the distance looking a bit worried and ran over to where Jenna was "If your little ass appreciates her life you'll follow along and not say a word from here on out, those people won't hesitate to kill you!" Kennard pulled her up by the back of her shirt "Everyone else, got that too, these people are from Christine's blood line, they are somewhat friends but once they find out we're here trying to stop everyone from killing each other things might not stay so pretty, they're too drive by their cause."
Blake nodded and wondered why in the world Kennard would help Jenna, she was his sister after all but he figured Kennard would have been madder about her nearly killing Christine, on the other hand for some reason Jenna stopped, could she really possibly be a good person deep down or was she playing all of them. Blake didn't have too much time to think things over before the group was joined by two rather strong looking shamans.
"Balin Weathers, what in god's name happened here were you attacked?" the taller of the two said "This is my brother Erv Weathers." The two looked to be in their mid to early thirties, both had light blonde rather thin hair.
"Kennard Weathers, there was an attack we went after the attacker but we couldn't do much because of the shape these two girls are in." Kennard put an emphasis on the word two as he glanced at Jenna who seemed to be in a state of total shock.
"I had to seem very suspicious or prying even, but which Blood line of the Weathers are you from?" Balin asked
"We came to fight against that Hao-supporting side and bring pride back to the Weathers good name." Kennard paused and pointed at Christine and Jenna "besides me they're the only Weathers among us everyone else has been recruited."
"Well then you are among friends, come with us."
Kennard followed and motioned to the others to do so as well as he took a grip of Jenna's shirt and led her along as well.
After following the two over a few rolling hills the two men stopped and started to tap around on the ground, Blake seriously thought the two were crazy or something and couldn't see any rational reason for two grown men to do such a thing, of course not until the man named Erv pulled open a small trap door.
"It was a storm shelter; it's become a bit of a compound for most of the Weathers on our side." He explained at the group followed them down a small narrow stair case, everything was fairly well lit, and it wasn't at all stuffy and the overall atmosphere was pretty comfortable, if Blake hadn't walking in from above ground he wouldn't have thought of it as being underground.
"You can lay that one over there, so anyway why don't you all introduce yourselves?" Erv said eyeing Christine and Jenna with curiosity Kennard nodded to the others.
"Blake Onterrie." Blake said as he put Christine on the couch nearby "She's Christine Weathers." He added
"Christine Weathers? The same Christine who's parents were murdered by Hao and lived with Stella Weathers for a bit? If so we've heard a good deal about her, word spreads fast you know, but everyone assumed she was dead after Stella died until recently when someone said something about hearing her name during the shaman fight." Erv asked
"Yes." Blake said this a bit reluctantly because he wasn't sure if it was something Kennard would like them to know about Christine
"Is it true?" Erv lowered his voice when he asked this
"Is what true?" Blake asked
"That she got… the gift some call it, anyone in their right mind would call it a curse, it's a vile disgusting thing, I've always though it had to be just a rumor because otherwise she wouldn't be on the same side." Erv eyed her yet again
"No." Blake lied, he could tell by the sound of the man's voice if he had said yes the reaction might not be so good.
"Good to know, I've got to say if you had said yes I'd have sent you folks on your merry way." Erv said, Blake glanced over at Kennard who seemed taken aback that anyone could possibly hate someone because of something they can't help they can do, Blake even thought this was stupid, considering Christine was his girlfriend though he figured he'd be a bit partial to her so it could be something he wouldn't be able to see through their eyes.
"And weren't you and her supposed to be a marriage arranged by your parents?" Erv asked Blake
"Yes, but we never met until right after the shaman fights started it was pretty much by chance." Blake answered
"Things just have a way of working out I suppose." Balin said as he tossed Blake a cloth to get the left over blood off of Christine's face "So what about the rest of you?"
"Remington Quennell, and Aaralyn Ali." Remington introduced himself and Aaralyn,
"Blake, you're not doing it right!" Hilda snapped snatching the cloth from Blake "Hilda Wilkes by the way."
"I was so doing it right." Blake said quietly
"That's Jenna Weathers, she's a bit anti-social today so don't mind her." Kennard nudged Jenna who decided to play along.
"I don't want to be a bother, but I was wondering what good do you honestly think this bunch is going to do?" Balin asked
"What good?" Kennard seemed taken aback "Those four made it through the shaman fight, and the other two, well Christine was an obvious pick, and Hilda well she shows more gut than some grown men. There're all pretty young but don't under estimate them."
Later on the group was joined by other shamans, Blake honestly was sick of sitting around chit-chatting but it didn't seem like they had much of a choice in the matter, Jenna hadn't even began to say a word and Christine was still out. Kennard had made it clear they wouldn't be staying after Christine came to but for Blake this wasn't happening fast enough he was finding himself pretty bored.
"It disgusts me about Tomas Weathers… that man, rumor has it he's got Hao's host and has given it to his daughter for use, about time someone used Hao but that's still wrong." Erv sneered
"I want to know how he managed that." Kennard said peering at Jenna out of the corner of his eye "It can't be much to worry about though, Hao was a good shaman but the way I figure he couldn't be worth a dip just fighting regularly."
"Still sickening, I honestly wish they would have changed their last names and astringed their selves from the good Weathers name." said Balin who was peering at Jenna and Kennard with curiosity "it's usually pretty easy to tell, hair color, skin usually is a bit darker from their blood line, occasionally though a few from our line look similar."
"Mine comes from my mom's side, funny how things work." Kennard laughed a bit and turned to Blake "Blake, I think Christine's slept long enough try and wake her up." Blake nodded he could tell Kennard was ready to leave before the others figured out everything.
"Oh wait; you can carry her alright can't you?" Kennard asked Blake
"Yeah." Blake answered
"Ok then, we should get on our way, I'm anxious to see where the fighting's going to be going on." Kennard said, the group finally took their leave Blake had never been so happy to get out of a place in a long time.
"Ok so Kennard where are we really going?" Blake asked this as soon as they were a good distance away.
"I've got some contacts, it's a compound similar but I prefer the company there a lot better."
"Talk about up tight." Remington said snaky
"Well you have to look at it in their point of view, both sides of the family have needlessly messed with each other for years so the hate's really grown, but if we can end it here,"
"We could stop a small war from out breaking." Remington finished for Kennard
"Why couldn't we tell them what we're really doing here?" Hilda asked
"We're a third party; we could easily take information back to their enemy." Kennard explained
"So what exactly are we going to do with," Blake looked over at Jenna
"Well, we can't exactly send her on her way, but I'm curious myself, why exactly did you stop Jenna?" Kennard asked
"You're a dumbass you know that?" Jenna sneered "Didn't mom and dad ever teach you something about not looking in your victim's eyes?"
"Oh yeah, because it tends to make your emotions stop you." Kennard said lightly
"And why don't you tell me Kennard, why didn't you tell them back there who I was with?" Jenna had walked in front of Kennard "Just what are you trying to pull you filthy traitor?"
Kennard sighed "Well I figured after not being there all those years for my little sister, I'd at least help her out of this one. If you had been anyone else I wouldn't have done that, however, it is my job to watch over Christine and I'd appreciate it if you didn't try killing her again."
"You don't have to worry about that, it's something I can physically do but I can't seem to mentally get myself to do it, after today I think I've given up on that, mother and father won't be happy to hear this."
"Then don't tell them!" Kennard demanded
"Well what do you expect me to do? When the time comes they'll all be expecting me to kill her and what happens when we're in battle and I can't do it?"
"You won't be a part of their battle!"
"It's my battle as well; it is something I was born to do!"
"You're not born to do what they tell you, you're born to make your own path!"
"And what if this is the path I choose?"
"Then you're wasting you life!"
"And
you?"
"If stopping this is what I'm supposed to do then I
can't say I'm wasting anything, besides my goal in life right now
is to assure their safety so they might go on and do better with
their life."
"You're going to end up hurt in the end."
"Like you care?"
"Who said anything about me caring?"
"You implied."
"I don't imply things!"
"Whatever Jenna, they'll kill you if you go back and tell them you couldn't do a job they didn't even ask you to do."
"Don't you think I know that?"
"Well what do you intend to do then?"
"I don't know actually." Jenna laughed a bit "Really funny how things work." Out of the blue Jenna quickly looked to her left "Hao!" she yelled as she oversouled him into her sword. Blake seriously thought Jenna was going to attack them until she jumped in the opposite direction and had attacked something else.
"Want to fuck around us again?" Jenna had asked a man she was holding her sward to his neck.
"Jeze you people might be pretty good fighters, some of you, but really you should have noticed that." Jenna smirked "So where should I cut you… across the chest? Or maybe I should just rip you apart little by little? State your business!" Jenna ordered the man
"Trying to ambush meddling peace keepers." The man said nervously
"They already know." Kennard hissed
"Well what do you say, I let you keep your life and you don't tell a person what you saw here?" Jenna sneered
"When your father hears about this he's going to-" Jenna cut the man off "My father won't hear about this because I'll kill you before you tell him!"
"You filthy traitor!"
"SHUT THE HELL UP!" Jenna had slashed the man across the throat "Son of a bitch always annoyed me anyway." Jenna started to walk away from the body and noticed the other staring at her "What? Like none of you wouldn't kill someone who endangered you like that without a second thought? Isn't that what you three did to team Acid Plutonium after all?"
Blake knew this was true but didn't really want to admit it to himself; he had tried not to think much about it though, at the time he didn't have any other choice but a small part of him wasn't too happy about what had happened that day, it was the first person he had had to kill, Aaralyn and Remington had killed before because they didn't have a choice in the matter, Blake honestly wondered if something like killing could get easier after a person has been forced to do it many times.
"Suppose I honestly can't go back to mother and father now, or at least until things are cleared up." Jenna smirked
"Then you're forced to hang around us then?" Kennard asked smirking as well
"Wow, you're a real Sherlock." Jenna said sarcastically, Blake really didn't know how to feel about all of this but there really wasn't anything else they could do with the girl, Blake knew she knew she had been in the wrong but she didn't seem like the type that would admit it. Blake still didn't think he could easily trust her just yet; he'd be keeping a close eye on her for a while, too bad he didn't know Kennard would be doing the same along with everyone else.
"KENNARD WEATHERS IT'S ABOUT TIME!" a voice yelled
"I told you I'd be a while you didn't have to wait up you know!" Kennard yelled back three shamans were running towards the group
"We weren't expecting you until tomorrow actually." One of the female shamans smiled, she looked to be about the same age as Kennard, her Hair was a lot like Christine's as her eyes were a shade of green but she was just about a spitting image of her besides the fact she was fairly tall.
"Yeah but the sooner he got back the better." A boy said he seemed to be a bit older, his hair was black and he didn't look like a family relation to Christine or Kennard
"You've got to tell us everything!" the other girl said she also looked more like Kennard and Jenna, but she was a bit younger than the others couldn't have been older than 18.
"Coy, Fox, Lillian." Blake assumed Kennard was addressing them in order of how they had spoken "We'll have to take it inside with the others I can't stand to tell a story more than once you all know that." Everyone walked a little further to a medium sized house, it looked fairly well kept up there were a few places where the paint had chipped on the walls here and there but it was better than Blake had expected.
After meeting several other people and sitting around for a while Blake was finally able to get Christine up and fill her in on the details she had missed out on, Blake was still confused as to what was going on along with everyone else.
"Well I wanted to wait until she was awake so I wouldn't have to explain it all more than once." Kennard said "it's simply like this, right now we have three groups of Weathers, you have people like Erv and Balin, so devoted to stopping the others they hate anything that even links them to the others, you have people like my parents who are like Erv and Balin, both of those sides think they are very much in the right, they think it's something we as Weathers are born into and they think if they can get rid of everyone linked to the Weathers but themselves. In the middle of it all there's Weathers that broke off from either side and joined tougher in the hopes of stopping the blood shed. Since we've broken off both sides have a common hate of this little group here, pretty much the only thing they agree on, they've both hurt each other well past the point of forgiveness."
"Sometimes, I think what we're doing is wrong to, isn't there a possibility we're just adding salt to the wounds?" Coy asked
"What else could we do though? None of us were too smitten to join in their fighting and it would be wrong to just sit back and watch." Fox sneered
"We'll do what we can even if it's not enough, at least we can say we tried right?" Lillian smiled "So, Christine, I've heard a little about you and your friends, rumor flies fast around the family these days, everyone was sure you were dead all those years after Stella's death, same for Kennard we didn't heard from him until after the shaman fight started up and when we got the letter it took a lot of guess work to figure out it was even from him, but what he was doing was fairly risky I suppose. But they said you could; hear Hao's thoughts… how was it?" Lillian eyed Christine with curiosity. Christine wasn't sure how to describe it she never had really described it to anyone. "It was weird." She finally said "His thoughts were really complex like he was thinking different things all at the same time, when he found out I was able to do that he would block his thoughts or think the opposite of what he was going to do so I wasn't able to predict them, I'm not sure how much of a help it ever was to me."
"That's still amazing, of all the other Weathers who might have gotten it you got it, talk about irony huh?" Lillian said in an airy tone
"Well when all of this is over, I'm going to start working on my actual life; I just want to own my own store." Fox mused
"I want to fall in love." Coy said happily
"I'm just going to hit the road and never look back." Lillian laughed "What about you Kennard what're you going to do after it's all over?"
"Never thought about that." Kennard answered simply
"We'll just wait for the shaman fight to start back up, and one of us is going win it then decide what we want to do." Blake laughed
"What if it doesn't start back up?" Aaralyn asked
"Well, in that case we'll just start from scratch I guess, not much else we can do but keep on living right?" Remington whipped his gun and aimed at a wall with it
"Don't even act like you're going to shoot the walls!" Hilda said snatching the gun out of Remington's hands and holding it above his head so he couldn't reach
"Hilda come on you're going to smudge it!" Remington complained everyone had to laugh a bit at poor Remington trying to reach for his gun it was like a child reaching for candy; to Christine's shock even Jenna seemed amused by it, she had been filled in about Jenna a bit from Kennard who had pretty much told her Jenna had changed but it wasn't like Jenna to admit anything at all so she'd be acting up tight for sometime, it wasn't something Christine would easily get used to.
Information would be coming before nighttime of when and where they could possibly end up fighting, no one really seemed worried about it, and Christine had a particularly good feeling about it.
Coy wanted to make sure the other adults around knew she didn't agree with bringing the kids into all this she made a good bit of effort to get them alone to tell them this.
"I can't believe we're dragging kids into all this." Coy sighed
"She seems like if we didn't she would have drug herself into it all." Fox laughed a bit
"We could easily forbid them they are kids after all, Kennard you're her body guard talk sense into her." Coy stared at Kennard
"They won't listen to even me in this situation, I've told Christine and the other though, if I say run they run, and they'll do exactly that, the kids will be fine we can still worry about them but we better worry about ourselves some to." Kennard said eyeing Lillian and Fox for support
"Coy, you're too kind hearted, right now we're a small group we need all the help we can get and these kids are it." Lillian
"Besides, Kennard will be there too, I'd trust him with my life and anyone else's too." Fox said happily
"Not to mention, the kids have been in plenty of tight spots without me interfering, I don't think we'll have a problem at all and even if we do I'll take care of everything your job is just to get out there and add to the team." Coy sighed after hearing Kennard said that, she knew there wouldn't be any budging him and he did seem pretty sure of himself to, Fox pretty much was the leader of the group and she shouldn't argue with his judgment either.
Remington lay lazily on the roof top aiming his gun at random birds that flew by, he knew better to shoot because Aaralyn who was sitting near by and she wouldn't take kindly to that, he would use that as an excuse to himself when really he knew he wouldn't have the heart to pull the trigger even if Aaralyn wasn't there. The two's spirits weren't far away of course.
"Hey Aaralyn, I was thinking and after all this is done with, until the fight starts back we're going to have to go back to the way things were before, unless we decide otherwise, anyway it's up to you what you'd rather do."
"I haven't thought much about it Remy; we could always go back and live with Marina, but everyone else…"
"I'd miss these idiots way too much too." Remington said laughing a bit
"We were really happy before but now it doesn't quite seem like we could easily go back to how things were before."
"Eh, maybe we should wait until it's all really over to decide, I've got a really good feeling about tonight and everything else, there's no way we'll fail."
"Unlike a lot of things, I think I can safely say the same Remy…"
"Don't tell me you're going soft like them Jenna, you've got the perfect chance now you could off every last one of them, come on oversoul already!"
"Shut the fuck up Pello." Jenna sighed irritably at her spirit
"Jenna, what would your father say?" Pello sneered
"Who knows, maybe he'd actually be proud because this is something he never could do."
"That's nonsense and you know it, come on Jenna after all that side of the family's put us through remember an eye for an eye tooth for a tooth, you're actually considering helping the betrayers, and you call yourself worthy of the Weathers name, what's gotten into you?"
"We've put them through a lot too over the years, this is stupid I've wasted the best years of my life on this crap, I gave a ten year old girl hell after she lost her parents, aunt and at the time what seemed everyone who cared about her, trying to make mommy and daddy happy. I'll admit I'm envious of her and her friends they live only for one another and for their dreams that they'll chase to the ends of the earth, even with all they've lost they can't help but put a good face on matters, in my life I've ha many reasons to be as happy as that if not even more so, the world's been handed to me on a silver platter and it's hard for me to laugh with ease or joke like a normal person." Jenna paused for a second to sigh
What did I earn out of all I've done? Even if my parents win this stupid fight with my help, what would I do with my life after it I'll be 21 years old in a few months and I've got absolutely no direction in life other than serving the family."
"Serving the family is why you were born."
"Nothing says I have to, besides do you expect me to go home empty handed? I couldn't bring myself to kill her earlier and that's not going to change, I killed a servant to protect them all."
"Stop being a coward, all you got to do is just slice her head off; I didn't stick around on this earth after death for this." Pello scoffed "Who are you and what have you done with Jenna?"
"Pello I'm not changing my mind, I'm going to cross Hao over and if you want I'll cross you over to you need to get off the earth you've been here too long and you're only here to go on some revenge spree."
"Jenna stop, stop acting like a human! You're not a human you're a shaman you're superior to all this crap feelings like this mean nothing!" Pello yelled
"Shamans are human, we can communicate and become one with a spirit, but we're still made of the same things as any other human, flesh and blood, if humans are really evil and uncaring for the world around them, the only way shamans can truly save the world it to get tougher and have peace and not kill each other over dreams or beliefs, we criticize humans for that but don't even realize that we're doing the same thing."
"Well I think you spent a bit too much time in the sun today, you've completely changed since this morning."
"All that stuff's been on my mind for a long time actually, I've been denying myself of it and kept moving forward today just brought it out."
"Well if you're going to be acting like this don't expect me to stick around and don't expect me not to tell your parents about all this!"
"Go then, by the time you get there and tell them I shouldn't be here anyway." Jenna smirked
"You are just like your brother." Pello scoffed
"Really, I wouldn't know Pello because I hardly know my brother."
"Well I know when to abandon ship, you're a lost cause." Blake had been watching from a tree nearby, he was lucky Pello didn't seem to see him or if Pello did see him Pello wasn't about to tell Jenna this as he flew off into the night cursing.
"What do ya' think Skya?" Blake asked his spirit
"I don't know what to think, if she's putting on she's doing a very good job of it, we won't be able to say for sure though unless she crosses over Hao, if she does that she has to be on the level."
"Lillian!" Jenna called for her
"Jenna?" Lillian asked
"I want to ask a favor of you, you can keep a secret right?" Jenna asked
"Well… under circumstances… yes I suppose…" Lillian reluctantly answered
"Good, because I have the spirit of Hao Asakura, I want you to cross him over." Jenna said sharply "You can do that right?"
"Well yes summoning and crossing spirits over is my specialty… but did you say…. Hao, Asakura Hao? How in gods name do you manage to…"
"My dad of course, him and the others were able to bind his spirit right after Yoh Asakura killed him."
"Well, I'll keep your secret and cross him over because he shouldn't be here and surly if he found a way to unbind himself his powers would be tremendous and possibly a threat to your and everyone else's life, under one condition I won't tell everyone else, you fight along side us, Kennard said he wasn't sure if you would or not, I'm sure he and the others knew about Hao but I can see why Kennard would choose not to let the others know Fox would have a fit."
"Alright then, I'll need a spirit to use in that case." Jenna agreed
"We've got you covered." Lillian said sharply
"I'm still going to be keeping an eye on her." Blake said to Skya as he gazed at Lillian crossing Hao over, no wonder Fox would want someone like her along side them Lillian seemed to know what she was doing and do a very good job of it too, Hao's spirit probably wouldn't be the most obeying thing around or easiest thing to work with. Lillian wasn't the only talented shaman around either, Fox didn't strike Blake as someone he'd want to be in a fight with, even as sweet natured as Coy was Blake figured she couldn't be very weak either.
It all made him wonder, Christine wasn't a very talented shaman at all, she had the ability to read Hao's mind but even then it didn't give her much, why would they be interested in letting her or any of them tag along were they really that desperate for help. It wasn't like Christine was being forced into their either, Blake knew it was something she wanted to do, as good of a feeling as he had about the night he still wondered why things would be playing out like this.
"Might as well call her already Hilda." Christine giggled at Hilda as she shoved the phone in Hilda's face
"Why?" Hilda asked her face was turning a to shade of pink as she stared at the phone
"Because, you said you'd call her and we might be doing something big tonight or so Fox says, you don't have to tell her that if it might worry her but at least call her."
Hilda sighed "You're a very persistent little brat you know that?" Christine laughed a bit at Hilda and pushed the phone further towards her
"Hey Ana…"
"Hilda! You actually called I was so worried how are you and the others anyway?" Ana squealed on the other end of the phone so loud that Christine could hear it
"Ana easy you're going to bust my ear drums… everybody's cool." Hilda laughed a bit "You're not getting into anything you shouldn't are you?" Hilda asked tauntingly
Fox had walked by the door frame and signaled for the girls to follow him
"Hey sorry I got to go, I'll call you back tomorrow probably… okay Ana I promise I'll call you back tomorrow." Hilda hung up the phone and she and Christine walked into a room where everyone else was and about 20 other people Christine didn't know standing around a table with what looked like blue prints to a house.
"We don't really have any time for introductions because we're really pressed for time, so we have to make this quick, our intelligence man Derek Weathers here has information Tomas Weathers has a bomb set in the other Weather's compound, the bomb can easily blow up everything within a five mile radius it's set to go off at midnight tonight, of course we can't have that now can we?"
Fox took a breath "Since they don't trust us we won't be able to just tell them to take care of it, we'll have to bust in Coy you shouldn't have a problem disabling it and Kennard, Christine Blake Jenna and Hilda you are all in charge of seeing to it that Coy makes it that far, everyone else is going to try and distract and keep the others from attacking you six, I'll detail everyone on the way there of what they're supposed to do."
"Oh and you there." Fox added glancing at Christine Blake Remington Hilda and Aaralyn "Know this, everyone here is considered your superiors, if we tell you to attack you attack, if we tell you to run you run, got it?" They agreed Blake some what reluctantly to this as he didn't like the idea of just running from a fight.
By the time they actually made it to the compound it was already dark
"We want to do this as quickly and quietly as possible with the smallest amount of bloodshed possible." Fox said he pointed to a group of people "All of you on the east side of the compound go inside in exactly five minutes." He pointed to a few other people "Same for you but on the west side."
"North side"
"And you all south side." He had pointed to Remington Aaralyn Lillian and a few other people
"Coy, everyone else, wait until after the others are in then you can all go in, you want to go straight to the basement, down that stair case." Fox explained looking over the blue prints
Jenna had already engaged an oversoul with the spirit Lillian had lent her "well it won't hurt to be ready will it?" she asked the others
"Go in now…" Fox said
"But I thought we were going to wait for the others." Blake said
"No, go in now, it's better if you do"
"Alright let's go then." Kennard said
"They've got the place well secured I've got to say, but this won't be so hard." Coy said as she used her oversoul to cut open a window without making a sound.
Christine followed Coy and Kennard in to the house with Blake Hilda and Jenna right behind her, every light was off, didn't seem like anyone at all was there.
"This is odd I was expecting more of a welcome party." Kennard said a hint of confusion in his voice "Be ready everyone they probably already know we're here." He added glancing at Christine who was holding her sward easily by her side. "Let's keep moving to, the stair case should only be a hall over." He had just finished saying this when rumbling footsteps started coming towards them
"That can't be what I think it is." Jenna hissed
"What?" Kennard asked her
"This all was a set up, because that's-" she was cut off when the wall parallel to where Christine and Blake were standing was busted open by what looked like a tiger, but it's tail was more like a lizard's and it's feet looked like a wolf's, it's entire body looked as if it had been cut and paste.
"What the hell is that thing!" Blake yelled
"It's a corpse puppet!" Jenna yelled trying to slash at the creature's back
"What?" Hilda asked
"You heard me, a corpse puppet, normally you see people's bodies, but lately mother and father were doing it with animal bodies, it's like oversouling a spirit with a body." Jenna explained as she dodged some of the animal's moves
"We'll have to take it out in that case!" Kennard said as he went to attack the animal "Are you retarded Kennard, if this is from father and mother it means this whole thing is a set up to trap us which means the bomb is probably going to go off sooner than planned!" Jenna yelled
"We won't have the time to take it out." Blake said pushing Christine out of the way of the tail which almost hit her
"Blake Christine!" Jenna yelled "See the piece of paper hanging off it's head, try to hit that!"
"Coy let's go disengage that bomb!" Kennard pulled Coy's arm, "The kids will be alright as long as that bomb doesn't go off!" he added
Hilda managed to make a small earthquake while Jenna distracted the Animal by hitting it's back this gave Christine a chance to slash at the piece of paper, but since it was agitated the animal moved it's head, moved it head really close to Blake who was able to slice right through the paper.
It fell down not even a second later Jenna decided to cut the legs off so it wouldn't be able to get back up at all.
"Nice move there boy." She smirked at Blake
"Come on already we got to catch up to Kennard and Coy!" Christine pulled on Blake
"Wait!" Hilda yelled "I'm going to head back out and see that Fox knows this is a set up so he can call the others off from coming in here."
"Okay Hilda." Blake said
By the time Hilda had gotten outside the other shamans had came inside right as they were told to before Hilda could tell Fox was what was going on.
"CALL YOUR PEOPLE OFF FOX!" Hilda yelled "IT'S ALL A SET UP!"
"What in the hell…" Fox eyed Derek who started laughing "You bastard!" he yelled "When's that bomb really going off?" he pulled Derek up by the shirt "Five minutes." Derek laughed
"YOU SON OF A BITCH!" Fox yelled punching Derek "Warn everyone Hilda, tell them I said get the hell out of there, I'm a bit tied up killing this bastard!"
Hilda ran back toward the house "EVERYONE GET THE HELL OUT IT WAS ALL A SET UP!" she had yelled this before entering back through the window as soon as she got in she saw several other shamans, and even more corpse puppets than before after making another earthquake to distract them she ran in the direction Christine and the others had went.
"Shit!" She hissed at the sight she saw, Blake and Jenna were being kept busy while Christine was being pinned down by a shaman, she couldn't reach her sword which she had dropped, if Hilda made an earth quake now the shaman would fall on top of Christine, since his sword was against her neck that's where it would go.
Hilda started to run over towards the others but was intercepted by a corpse puppet.
"Watch out Hilda!" Kennard yelled as he slashed the paper off it's head, only missing Hilda's body by a few inches
"Get out of here now I'll get the others!" he ordered her Hilda started to run back in the direction she had come, and there was Remington and Aaralyn fighting a corpse puppet, she made a jump and ripped the paper off it "Let's get out of here right now this place is going to blow!" She yelled to the two grabbing a hold of their arms pulled them out not giving them a chance to say a thing.
As soon as they got outside they saw that just about everyone else was out as well beside Christine, Blake, Jenna, Kennard and Coy that is.
"Shit where in the hell are they, there isn't much time!" Hilda yelled
Hilda looked back at the house and saw three people coming out, it was Blake, Jenna and Christine who looked like she was trying to get back inside because Blake was grabbing a hold of her and seemed to be having a difficulty of doing so.
The three had only gotten about ten feet away from the house before the bomb went off and the house burst into flames.
"It was only enough to blow the house up." Hilda hear Jenna say her voice cracking a bit
"YOU FUCKING BASTARD!" Fox yelled punching Derek "YOU SON OF A BITCH!"
Hilda Remington and Aaralyn ran up to where Blake Christine and Jenna were, Lillian wasn't far behind
"Where's Kennard and Coy?" Lillian asked Blake
"He was… still inside…" Blake said slowly
"And Coy to?" Lillian asked Blake only nodded
"I'LL KILL THAT MOTHER FUCKER DEREK!" Lillian ran over to where Fox was punching Derek with her oversoul engaged
"That fucking dumbass just had to play hero…" Jenna sobbed
"Goddamn it!" Remington hissed Christine still seemed frozen "There's just no fucking way he came all this way to die here." She said quietly
"There's no way he survived that from where he was…" Blake grabbed Christine's shoulder because he thought she might decide to go look for him in the burning rubble.
"Let's get the hell out of here!" Fox yelled standing up and pulling Lillian away from Derek's body, the two had literally beaten him to death. "Pull yourselves tougher now, that's an order!" He said to the kids
Obviously it was going to be a long night, no one was really up to sleeping, Jenna kept crying and saying how she should have known it was a set up from the very beginning Christine hadn't said a word since they got back, Blake kept cussing about how he should have thought before he moved at the one guy and Christine wouldn't have been knocked down and Kennard wouldn't have had to waste time saving them. Aaralyn of course did nothing but cry, Remington had tried to comfort her but this didn't work too well when he was also a wreck over it.
"It doesn't make any sense at all Charger," Hilda looked over at Charger "What in the hell did we accomplish here?" of course Charger didn't have an answer to this nor could he think of anything to say so he just said nothing.
"I know this is really soon but, last night scouts were sent back to retrieve the bodies, they found some remains of Coy's but not even a trace of Kennard's, we're expecting that his body had parts they deemed useful for their corpse puppets, seeing as we all know there's no way he would have survived that. Funeral arrangements have been made a week from now Morningside Cemetery, Mead, Nebraska at 9 am."
Fox was quiet for a second
"That brings us to one more thing you all know Derek was the one to place blame on for the deaths of Kennard and Coy, but I can tell by the look on most of your faces you feel it was yourself to blame. And there's nothing I can say to make most of you change your minds, I realize, our goal here, it's one we won't b able to accomplish as long as we're still fighting, we're only fighting fire with fire, in this whole situation I think it might be fore the best if we all left, the only thing we're able to actually do with this situation is stay out of it… maybe if people before us had done that we wouldn't be standing here today, Lillian and I have decided that we'll be leaving tomorrow, we're going to go try to have a real life, if the rest of you know what's best for yourselves you'll do the same and not allow another person's coffin the chance to rest on your conscience."
"The choice will be yours and yours alone, if you stay I hope you can make a good go of it, and I hope you don't have a hard time trusting you and everyone around you, no one expected Derek to do what he did, after all those yeas he proved time after time he was legit, maybe he changed his mind recently, or maybe he was with them the whole time, no one can say for sure, it's as plain as day on some of your faces you don't know who to trust, so to keep from eventually getting so paranoid we start killing each other, or wrongly accusing other people. That's all, you're all dismissed now."
Everyone had started to walk out of the room "you six stay!" Fox said eyeing Christine and the others Lillian closed the door after everyone else besides them had left
"It feels wrong to talk about these things this soon, but Kennard did have a will written about a year ago, in the will there's a house over in Mead, it's two stories, seven bedrooms three bathrooms along with the typical kitchen dining and living room, he had left the house to me but I don't have much of a use for a house of sorts, and I also have a place of my own not far from Mead which suits me better. Anyhow Christine I was thinking you probably wouldn't want to stick around and considering the fact you kids don't seem like you'll be splitting up anytime too soon I thought maybe you might want it, it'll still be under my name though and you won't have to worry about taxes and such. There's a considerable amount of money going to you also, Kennard also included Jenna in his will for things, Coy was included among myself and Lillian as well but since Coy also died we'll be all splitting her share of things."
"I see… I suppose we could but if we leave now… what could they have accomplished by dying back there?" Christine asked quietly
"What would they have accomplished if you all stayed behind and got killed trying to make their deaths worthwhile?" Lillian asked
"If he hadn't stopped to save us he could have gotten out Coy too, he saved our lives how can we just leave this place and this cause? Innocent people could end up in the middle of it and other shamans, so how could we leave it to all just happen?" Blake asked
Fox sighed "You've forgotten though, Kennard's job was to ensure Christine's safety at all costs even in death. He wanted to get Coy out of there too after getting you all out, if anything he could have got her out first and still had time for you all but Kennard was thinking rather hastily, everyone was, he would have gladly died for Christine or any of you no matter what your next choice in life would be. You can't devote your life to the dead, you have to make your own choices based on what you think is right, if you want to do anything that would do his death justice then go start a normal life."
Of course when Hilda had told Ana about what had happened to Kennard Ana was obviously saying how worried she was about everyone and to be careful and stuff, the rest of the day wasn't as bad as the night had been everyone was starting to lighten their mood a good bit, Christine had decided to take Fox's advise and leave, it seemed everyone else was going to do the same. The situation with in the Weather's family all started over something that was pretty small, it just got a chance to grow bigger each side of the family had done terrible things to the other, not to mention other people along the way, Drotoro would never be able to get along with many Weathers that were involved in the situation after what had happened to him, Manny had also suffered because of the conflict. Stella may have been right when she said the family history was important to know, but just knowing was enough there wasn't a reason to relive it, but maybe things could be fixed in time, slowly fixed bit by bit person by person spirit by spirit, maybe Jenna and Christine could be a part of it, they wouldn't be the first and definitely not the last.
"Christine I was wondering, do you mind if I join you all in Mead? I want to apologize for back then, and I also, want to make you into a better fighter." Jenna said as they boarded a bus the next morning, Christine glanced at the others who seemed to approve "Sure Jenna."
Lillian had over heard this and told Fox about it, the only thing he could say was "Knowing Jenna being Kennard's little sister, she'll make quite a lion out of that mouse."
The day of Kennard and Coy's funeral had came at last, two headstones sat side by side…
Coy
Weathers.
May 19th
1979 - March 20th 1999
We hope
you find love in heaven.
Kennard
Weathers
June 23rd
1967 – March 20th 1999
Guardian,
Brother, Friend
Did
more for us than you'll ever know.
Christine's attention kept drifting as they stood there, it was a very sunny day and really hot to be wearing black clothing, she stared off into the distance at the vast amount of shade there was under a tree wishing that the same amount of shade could be where she was. For some reason Christine couldn't change her gaze from the tree. There was something moving behind it, it was a dog, it looked exactly like the one she first saw when she got that first letter from Kennard, could it really be the same dog from back then? It did seem to be watching everyone, Christine figured it best not to bring that up with the others the dog probably wasn't even the same one from before anyway after all it had been four years her memory couldn't have been that good.
Did Kennard actually live?... let's just say I haven't actually decided myself go ahead on to the last chapter though, I like how I typed it better.