AN:Well, hmm, what should I write today? Well, I got nothing… Enjoy!
A Place to Call Home
Chapter 3
Previously...
"So, Jay was tryin' to protect his family, and had no choice but to take Shirley with him..." Moses was completely confused.
"That may be so, but he could have consulted us, and open up to us..." Senel shook his head. "Is this all we are to him?"
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"Alright Solon, I brought the Merines, now leave the Oresorens alone!" Jay demanded.
"Oh, so brave, so heroic, but did you really think that I would just let you go?" Solon grinned at Jay. "You are a murder, Jay! You killed many innocent people, men, women, children... all those people..."
"Y..you! You promised to leave the Oresorens alone if I brought the Merines to you!" Jay said defensively.
"Hah! You actually believed that! Besides, they wouldn't ever do anything for you, nor would that group that you've been traveling with, if something happened to you, now would they?" Solon laughed.
Jay glared at him, "sh...shut up! You don't know anything!"
"Hmm... that look in your eyes, it's the same as before..." Solon snickered. "Do you think they would come for you after what you've done!"
"...he's right, after what I've done, they probably hate me!" Jay hung his head, but just then, Shirley woke up.
"Wha... what happened? Jay! Where are we!" Shirley was shocked to see this place again.
"Ah, so you've awoken, Merines..." Solon turned and faced her.
"Get away from her!" Jay tried blocking him, but Solon threw him out of the way.
"No! Jay!" Shirley sat up to help him but the creepy man was in the way.
"Marines, you are mine now!" Solon stared down at her. "Every country wants you! They all want that power of yours! They'll all pay well to get their hands on it!"
"You're not going to do anything with her!" Jay lunged at him again but a condensed ball of eres hit him.
"You've become quite rebellious, haven't you?" Solon towered over him again, it was like living through his past again, but this time, Jay stood back up.
He refused to be the same as he was all that many years ago, "you're not going to harm any of my friends, you hear me!" Jay yelled.
"Why you little…" Solon raised his hand again and struck him. "You do realize who you're talking to don't you! I took you in, I raised you, I fed you! If it weren't for me, you wouldn't be here right now, now would you!"
Jay fell hard onto his side, and his wish leaf fell out of his pocket, "well, well, what do we have here?" Solon made his way over to the leaf but Jay scrambled to his feet and lunged for it. His futile attempt was nothing to Solon, as he simply walked over to Jay and kicked him out of his way. "Lets see, now, what does it say?" Solon read it to himself, "Ahahaha! That's a good one!" he turned to Shirley, laughing. "Merines! Do you know what this miserable wench wished for!"
"S..stop!" Jay attempted to prevent him from reading it out.
Solon, rather than ignoring him, enjoyed the pitiful sight, "he says he wishes for a family! Ahahaha! As if there's someone in this world besides me that would want to take him in as a family! He doesn't belong anywhere!"
"WE'RE HIS FAMILY!" familiar voices called out.
"!" Jay whirled around to the voices, and saw the three Oresoren Brothers. "Wh…what are you three doing here!"
"We're here to save you, Jay! Ors!" Pippo said proudly.
"You ignorant little fools," Solon was furious and summoned his ninjas, but they did not appear.
"We already took care of your ninjas, Solon!" Quppo said.
"Yes, Jay, every last Oresoren from the Village has come to save you! We were all worried about you, ors!" Poppo smiled at Jay.
Jay was staring at the three and he felt his eyes sting, he hadn't had this sensation in a long time, and not a second later, tears began welling up from his heart and spilled through his eyes.
"W…why? Why would you risk your own lives just to save me?" Jay brought his hands to his face to hide himself.
"Because we're family, Jay," Quppo smiled at him. "Family can throw their own fears aside for the ones they love, Jay."
Jay looked down at his feet, his vision still blurring from the tears, "yea, you did it for us too, didn't you?" Pippo asked. "Solon was threatening you that he'd kill us unless you brought Shirley here right?"
Jay's head snapped up, "h…how did you know about that?" he asked.
"We know everything, Jay," Poppo cocked his head to the side. "You've been with us a long time, we'd know when there's something wrong with you."
Jay's eyes began to fill up with tears again, "you pitiful fool! You should know that I hate to see disgusting things!" Solon walked over to Jay enraged. He tried to strike him again but the Oresoren blocked his hand in time, "Jay! Take Shirley and get out of here!" Quppo ordered.
"B…but!" Jay tried arguing.
"Don't worry about us, Jay!" Pippo said. "We Oresoren are stronger than we appear!"
Jay knew this but he was still worried, though he knew that there was no arguing with them when they were serious.
"Come on Shirley, we've got to go!" Jay tugged on her arm and she followed him out of the room.
Senel and the party were still at the bottom entrance of the Mirage Palace when Senel suddenly stopped, "do you really think that we can trust Jay still?"
Everyone was shocked at his question and fell silent, "what are you talking about, Senny!" Norma suddenly bursted.
"What's wrong with you, Senel! Course we can trust 'im!" Moses exclaimed.
"Yea, but he kidnapped Shirley, and took her to the enemy! How are we supposed to trust him! How can I trust him!" Senel yelled at his friends.
"Calm down, Coolidge!" Chloe stepped in front of him.
"QUIET! How can you all keep so calm! Don't you care about Shirley, she's your friend too isn't she!" Senel shoved Chloe.
Chloe got mad at this, she walked up to Senel and slapped him, "Coolidge! How can you say that? We are all worried about Shirley too, but if you haven't noticed yet, Jay is also our friend!" Chloe yelled at him. "Open your eyes, Coolidge! We ARE worried, it's just that we're calm because we can control our emotions, and also because she's with Jay. Jay may have taken her, but he did it because he was threatened to do so, if the one he took her to tries to harm her, he can protect her!"
Senel blinked a couple times and stared at Chloe, he felt his face grow hot where she had slapped him. He realized what he had done and said, and looked down at his feet, "I…I'm sorry, Chloe, everyone… I overreacted," Senel apologized.
It was now Grune's turn to take the stage, she put a hand on Senel's head, "everyone gets like that sometimes, you did it because you care about Shirley." Grune smiled at him. "And, you probably said all those things about Jay because you really trusted him all this time. You must feel betrayed, but Jay is a good boy, he wouldn't do anything to hurt you or Shirley."
"You're right, we've got to save Shirley and Jay!" Senel had a strong and sincere smile on his face.
"Alright Senny!" Norma cheered. Everyone smiled, "CHARGE!"
Jay and Shirley had been running for a long time and they came to a halt, Shirley looked up at Jay as his shoulders heaved heavily from running and crying.
"Jay, why didn't you tell us about what Solon was doing?" Shirley suddenly asked. "We could've helped you through all of this, like we helped everyone else."
Jay looked down at his feet, "…I…I didn't want to cause so much trouble for everyone…"
Shirley stared at him feeling upset, "well, everyone was worried about you! I was worried, Senel was worried… Moses was worried about you the most, did you know!"
Jay looked up at her, shocked by the sudden change in her voice, it was strong and confident, unlike how he felt at the moment. Jay dropped his head suddenly, he felt tears welling up again and felt humiliated for some reason, "I…I didn't…but I…"
"It's okay to open up to us, we trust you, can't you trust us?" now it was Shirley's turn to feel like she would cry. "You wished you had a family didn't you? Aren't we good enough? Aren't the Oresorens good enough?"
"But…that's different…you're all friends, I trust you all, but I didn't want to get everyone involved and getting hurt…" he looked away.
"Don't look away, Jay! Do you know what everyone would think if they heard you say that? Have you thought about, maybe that everyone wanted to help you? That they really care for you?" Shirley said unfaltering. Jay felt completely confused, he never felt confused, he was Jay the Unseen, he was an information dealer, he was supposed to know everything, but know, it came down to one thing, he was… lonely. He now felt completely broken, he felt like he was falling through that dark pit again, falling into the pit of emptiness and darkness. He saw the light again at the end of the tunnel, he saw his friends, the Oresorens, everybody reaching out towards him, and he looked away but stopped. He heard Shirley's voice again, "don't look away, Jay!" he faced the light once more and smiled at them, "I do belong…"
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Well, that should do for one chapter, I guess. Hope you enjoyed that, please R & RAnd once again, here's Backstage with the Fun Bunch!
Senel: Whoa, Chloe, you're scary…
Chloe: I…I'm sorry, Coolidge, did that hurt?
Senel: Umm… yea, it still stings…
Shirley: What happened to your face, Senel!
Chloe: Uh, it's a long story…
Senel: She slapped me… points at Chloe
Shirley: WHAT!
Chloe: The authoress made me!
Shirley: glares at me…
Me: Umm… it had to be done! Senel needed to be snapped out of it, and a girl slapping him was totally necessary!
Everyone: Okay…
Senel: By the way, Grune, what do you mean '"Jay is a good boy, he wouldn't do anything to hurt you or Shirley."'? That little punk got me into so much trouble the first time we met! He even got me thrown into jail!
Jay: Hey! Who are you calling a little punk!
Senel: Of course you! Because of you, those Bantam Bouncers came, I knocked them out, and Will threw me into that cellar of his!
Jay: Well, I just wanted to see what you were capable of doing.
Senel: Now that I think about it, I still have to get back at you for doing that! Come here you little…
Jay: ARGH! Help!
Norma: Oh, so now you ask for help?
Will: That's enough! hits everyone on the head.
Everyone: Oww…
Moses: Hey! I didn't even take part in this 'ere conversation!
Will: I know, I just felt like it… MWAHAHAHA!
Everyone took a step away from Will.
Norma: I knew Teach went crazy around monsters and old stuff, but this is getting out of hand! RUN FOR IT!
Well, I hope you enjoyed that little bit, now, I must get to sleep!