Chapter 2: Beautiful Disaster

Jack and company started to walk til the end of the bridge. Pausing, he turned and touched the journey pig which brought them to his desired location. He looked out to the valley. It was amazing how clearly they could hear the wind. Hardly any monsters were present at the time. Remembering the mission, he looked left to right.

He continued to look around, the others doing the same. "Hmm…" he pondered scratching his head.

"Jack," Natalie called out, "What are we going to do?" Natalie asked afterwards taking a step closer to her Sergeant.

He stopped looking around and faced Natalie, "We have to find Cody," he finally said seriously. Looking at the others he nodded and grabbed Natalie's hand.

She blushed and looked at their hands. She felt her whole body warm up not to mention her hands, her fingers locked with Jack's fingers. Blushing, she nodded and the party ran towards the totem poles. They seemed pretty suspiscious.

"Jack," Ganz muttered looking in front of him, "I think I see him!" he continued to yell out rushing towards the nearest totem pole.

"Ganz!" Flau yelled, "Wait! I think-" Flau tried her best to catch up and ran towards him but it was too late. The totem pole came to life and pushed him aside. He screamed in pain as his crutches were the first to crash into the ground also coming into contact with himself as he plunged into the ground.

"Ganz!" Jack yelled out in horror and ran towards him. he quickened his pace as the totem pole approached.

"Jack what do we do?" Natalie asked pulling out her glory blade taking a step closer towards him and Ganz.

"Yes," Sebastian began getting into battle mode, "Sir jack what must we do?" Sebastian asked eventually wailing his arms.

Jack stood up and turned away from the knocked out Ganz, "We are so going to kick his ass!" he then pulled out the arbitrator. Throwing a herb extraxt MAX to Ganz he prayed that his health would turn better. Turning to the totem pole he cried out in determination and told his party members to charge.

Natalie and Sebastian charged towards the creature, but then stopped when they saw it transform into two really big totem poles.

"Jack…" Natalie muttered staring in awe. A strong wind passed through and she turned to see Jack also a bit surprised.

"Whoa…" he muttered softly. His grip on his arbitrator tightened, "This is awesome!" he smiled widely and prepared to attack the thing.

Natalie and Sebastian looked at each other and then at Jack and saw their signal to attack. The unleashed various combos, the volty gauge building up every second of the battle.

"This thing is huge!" Jack declared as the creature took the blows screaming in pain, "Man this is so fun!" he continued finishing his 5 hit combo with a volty blow.

"But Master Jack we should be more careful…" Sebastian commented still fighting keeping an eye out for Jack. He slid side to side and took a couple of hits and guarded some taking the chance to counter blow. Grunting his eyes went from the creature to Jack.

"Yeah Jack," Natalie agreed with Sebastian's point, "Don't be too childish or else something bad may happen," Natalie added looking concerned.

Jack continued smiling rolling his eyes at his comrades, "You guys are too-" Jack then got knocked down by it and he slammed on to the ground. He groaned and felt the rocks dig into him. It didn't help as another gust of wind came throwing small rocks onto his face.

"Jack!" Natalie called out and rushed to him. She landed a three hit combo and kneeled before Jack, the armor at her back blocking the remaining small rocks from hitting Jack.

"Sir Jack!" Sebastian also called out. Jack gave him another signal and he nodded, "This is for you Sir Jack," he muttered to himself. He felt the power within him surge and started his volty blast.

……………………………………………………………………

Jack held his head within his hands and slowly opened his eyes, "What just happened?" he asked slightly dazed from the previous battle. He fully opened his eyes to see that he was in the sky on top of a cloud.

"What the heck?" he screamed getting up quickly turning his head side to side in curiousity.

"Jack!" called out a familiar voice. He quickly spun around in response and yelled out, "Who is it?"

"Jack are you okay?" it was a familiar voice; he gazed at the person, or as one could say, creature in front of him.

"Ridley?" Jack asked staring at the golden winged angel.

She smiled slightly from her serious face. Her hair was let down and swaying slightly to the wind coming from behind her. The light shone on an appropriate spot that made her glow even more than she did before. She looked him straight in the eyes, "Man you scared me," she finally said holding her head.

"Why what happened?" he asked frantically, eyes widening per word.

"Idiot," Ridley began raising her voice to the brunette, "Look down there, don't you remember?"

Jack turned around and saw nothing, "What?"

"I said look down," she responded emphasizing the down.

He looked down and saw the cloud, he then dug through it and saw the wind valley. He was amazed at what he found next, it was his body and around it was everyone, even Ganz.

"What the?!" he screamed and found himself falling over backwards.

"Don't do that again Jack," she scolded piercing his eyes with her own, "I don't want you to die so suddenly like that!" Ridley continued placing her hands on her hips.

"Sorry," he simply answered bowing his head.

She smiled at him and placed her hand on his, "It's ok," he smiled back at her and they looked at each other for a few seconds before she continued, "Now go back, they must be worried sick."

"Okay…" He replied feeling the love come from her eyes, "But will I see you again?" he asked with slight desperation in his voice.

"You never know…." she responded starting to disappear.

……………………………………………………………

Natalie frantically shook Jack, "Jack! Jack!" tears streamed down her face, her green eyes so watery and huge from the overwhelming emotion, "You stupid idiot!" she yelled continuing to cry.

Sebastian fanned the sergeant with his hands, "Master Jack!" he cried out. Being a robot he couldn't really cry. But he knew he felt sadness/

Flau frowned, but then she stared at him, "You guys I think he's come to."

"Really?" Natalie asked with a touch of happiness in her voice.

Jack slowly rose up and rubbed his head, "What happened?"

Natalie hit him in the head, "You idiot!"

He rubbed his head, "Ouch…" he muttered wincing from the pain. He looked at his team, "Sorry…"

She looked at him and embraced him tightly feeling the tears form in her eyes again, "Jack…" she then parted and looked him in the eye, "Don't scare me like that again!"

He smiled and embraced her again, "I won't. I don't want to see you cry like that..." he muttered to her, Natalie feeling her face warm up again. Afterwards he stood up and faced Ganz, "Ok then," he said just a bit red from recent events, "Where now?"

"There," Ganz spoke and pointed at a little unconscious boy.

"Cody!" Flau yelled out and Jack took this chance to attack all the totems that popped up.

"This is a great chance to increase our levels! Okay everyone attack!" Jack smiled and slashed away.

He cleared some that were in front of him and yelled, "Life song!" to revive some of their lost energy. After a couple more combos he formed with them a box link and quickly got rid of the rest.

Finally, after 10 minutes of full out totem pole bashing, they sat down and talked with Cody.

"Mommy?" he said looking up at Flau.

"What?" she replied flustered, "No, she isn't here..."

Cody looked at her and his eyes got watery. His bottom lip trembled and suddenly he burst out in tears, "MOMMY!"

Ganz grabbed Cody's arm, "Calm down," he approached Cody with a smile, "Your mommy is probably done her mission and is back home worried sick."

"Really Uncle Ganz?" he asked. Ganz replied with a simple nod that calmed Cody down. He hugged the larger man and dug his face into his belly.

"Yes Cody," he replied as Cody gazed up at him again. With that he held out his hand, "Now let's go back to see mommy!"

"Yeah!" and they all started to walk away from the wind valley.

Moments later as they party walked, Jack turned to them and began walking backwards, "Sometimes the captain surprises me," Jack said smiling.

"Yeah, tubby I mean Ganz sure is a good guy," Flau smiled and caught up with the two.

Jack faced his team, "Ok everyone, mission complete!" he smiled widely and placed his hand onto his chest, "We got some good experience points too! Ok everyone, let's just find the journey pig and return home!"

Natalie and Sebastian nodded and followed their sergeant's command.

At Lupus gate, Jack waved goodbye to his comrades and ran to his room.

"Ok, I guess I should rest for today!" he smiled and sat down, "Ouch!" he yelled out and held his arm, lifting his sleeve it revealed a scar and was still bleeding. "I should get that bandaged," he muttered. Standing up and moaning from the pain, he opened the door.

"What?" he saw a familiar face, familiar but he just couldn't put his finger on who is was.

It was a girl, not too older than him, she had green hair, a bit taller, red blouse, and a regular pair of jeans. She smiled at him, "Hey Sergeant Jack!"

"Huh? I know you? Oh wait..." he pondered for a moment, "Just wait a second..."

"Jack don't tell me you forgot who I was...It has only been like half an hour since our last mission," she knocked on his head, "Hello! Are you in there Jack?!"

"Natalie?"

A/N: I hope you'll all like it better now that I edited it. :P R&R