By some freak accident, Necrid was murdered while selling real-estate. But that isn't the most odd of this fanfic's tales, as you will soon learn...

Chapter Ten : High Altitudes (aka: A Cautionary Tale)

By some odd coincidence, Kilik, Maxi, and Xianghua all happened to be at the shrine to Hephaestus from SCII. Why they were there, they didn't know, but it could probably be linked to the fact that they all had to fight Cassandra at this point in time.

"So... how's it been?" asked Kilik to Maxi.

"...Who are you again?" said Maxi, being affected by his amnesia at random.

Kilik looked betrayed. "It's me! Kilik! Your best friend!"

Maxi thought about this. "Nope... not ringing any bells. Sorry."

"Maxi, it's us! Your compadres! We're the Three Musketeers!" said Xianghua.

"I see no muskets," the pirate pointed out, looking skeptic. He suddenly looked around. "Man! I sure wish I had buttons!"

Xianghua gained a smug look. "See? What did I say during Christmas?"

"That he wouldn't have buttons one day when he really needed them and that yours would come in handy?" Kilik guessed.

"EXACTLY! Look where he is now," scoffed the woman, rolling her eyes.

The Japanese man suddenly gripped his head. "Wait... it's all coming back to me!"

Kilik and Xianghua looked hopeful.

"I just remembered!" chuckled Maxi, slapping his forehead. "I have buttons in my pocket!" He pulled out the buttons as evidence.

The two younger people sighed and looked downtrodden.

"Hey, anybody hungry? I randomly have one of those pots you boil water in!" said Maxi. "And lo! Water falling from nowhere into that little pool there!" He chuckled at his fortune.

Kilik and Xianghua, meanwhile, were immersed in their own conversation.

"Well, maybe he is remembering, since he remembered that he put the buttons in his pockets after we got horribly drunk," Kilik said.

"That was mere coincidence!" snapped Xianghua. "As is this whole chapter. ...Wait... what's he doing with a spaghetti pot?"

"And why does he have a gas lighter?"

"I don't know. Should we ask him?"

They walked over to him.

"What are you doing... boiling water?" Xianghua asked, looking at the spaghetti pot, that was now full of water.

"I'm hungry, so I decided to make some... oh, damn, I forgot the food," sighed Maxi, snapping his fingers in disappointment. "Anyway, wanna boil water just for the heck of it?"

"Erm... sure, why not?" said Kilik, shrugging. "That doesn't make much sense, but... well, nothing does anymore."

"Good man!" The pirate tried to start up the gas-torch, but it didn't blow flames. "What the... What's wrong now? First I forget the food and now! Now my torch won't light!" He searched his pockets again and pulled out a book of matches. Not a 'book' as in 'reading', you know.

"I don't think that's a good idea," said Xianghua, taking a few steps back.

"Oh, what do you know?" snapped Maxi. "You're just some crazy woman." As he lit a match, his companions backed away in fear or some such fleeting feeling. "Wait... It's all coming back to me! You're Kilik! And you! You're Xianghua!" He threw the torch and the lit match away. "I can't believe I forgot--"

Meanwhile...

"Shouldn't you be at the shrine, Cassie?" Sophitia asked her younger sister, raising an eyebrow at Cassandra.

"Well, I just didn't feel like going up there today, so I decided not to," the young woman told her, looking out a nearby window.

Suddenly, the top of the mountain seemed to explode, and an avalanche overtook it. Cassandra gaped in horror.

"What?"

"The mountain! The shrine! Explosion! Avalanche!" Cassandra started flailing around.

Sophitia looked out the window, wincing. "Aw, crap..."

The End

qpqpqp

dbdbdb

A/N: Okay, I understand that some of you think this fanfic is over and done with. Well... it's not. That whole 'Aftermath of Jobs' chapter was just telling you what they did to make extra money. It wasn't ending anything... Except for maybe, I dunno, my inspiration for last week. I COULDN'T WRITE ANYTHING, which is why I was unable to update last week. I'm sorry...

Oh, and, before I forget: If any of you have suggestions for a new title (one to attract people to the story, rather than make them turn their noses up and say, "ha-RUMPH!"), then just go to my profile page and e-mail me. It's all written down there.