A/N: Sorry I have taken so long uploading this chapter. I got a new job recently and it has been making me too tired to do these, but I still plan on writing these out. I will try to be more consistent keeping these at a least a weekly to biweekly thing. Thank you to those who continue to read and comment and all that cool stuff and I hope you continue to support my work!

Chapter 7: The Next in Line

The clash rocked through Jack's body causing him to wince and take a knee out of pain. Gerald was pushing down with all his strength looking at Jack with violent intent. Memories flooded Jack's mind as he struggled to keep Gerald at bay. When he first arrived at Theater Vancoor he stood no chance against him on their first encounter. He was tossed around like a play thing and Jack admired his strength, hoping to surpass this fearless warrior someday. With each mission he fulfilled for the guild, Jack grew that much stronger. He surpassed Gerald, his sergeant in the Hecton squad when he first joined the guild, very quickly and after an encounter with the Void Community Jack was made the sergeant of his on squad at the guild and the first to teach him the ropes was Gerald himself. Although his time as being the sergeant of the Acht squad was short, he truly did enjoy his time at the guild. Jack was finally able to push Gerald back and was felt some relief in his shoulders and arms. Gerald charged right back in, but Jack side stepped him and slid back using his sword as balance. It was mostly just Jack dodging Gerald for awhile until he got annoyed calling him out.

"What's wrong kid I thought you said you could handle me? All you are doing is dodging! You aren't a warrior you are a fake!" He rushed Jack again this time faster, and instead of jumping out of the way he hits Gerald back causing him to stumble backwards.

"Were we fighting already?" Jack said with a smirk, "I thought we were just loosening up a bit. I was lying in a bed all day yesterday and have been feeling super stiff." Jack stretches a bit as he does a couple of air thrust with his sword and hops up and down trying to get the soreness out of his body. While he is doing this, Gerald clenches his teeth together very aggravated.

"You think this is a game? You are fighting for your life here kid don't you forget that." He rushes towards Jack again and when gets close enough Jack thrust his sword out inches from Gerald's throat. Gerald slides to a stop with the point of Jack's blade almost piercing him. He jumps back and swallows hard as small bead of blood comes out his neck.

"This is a game to me Deputy, and I play for keeps." Jack says mockingly as he makes his way towards Gerald. Gerald wipes the blood off his neck and then charges Jack again a bit more cautiously. He is annoyed at how light Jack is taking the situation.

They clash swords back and forth with Jack getting a little faster and faster each time. Gerald takes a step back to make a giant swing forward, but Jack dodges quickly leaving Gerald's chest completely exposed. Jack takes the hilt of his sword and hits Gerald hard in his stomach knocking the wind out of him. He drops his swords and begins to wheeze heavily gasping for breath.

"You give up yet?" Jack asks Gerald as he swings his sword over his shoulder. "I've gotten a lot stronger since the last time we fought and since I left Radiata. There's no way you can beat me now." Gerald looks up at Jack who has a fierce warrior look on his face at this point. Gerald finally gets up and grabs his swords.

"Not…yet…kid…" He puts his swords in an X form and they look like they are gathering energy. Jack knows what he is doing, but instead of stopping him he decides to take everything he has so that Gerald would be forced to give up. "Dual Wave Blade!" Gerald yells out as he launches his volty blast at Jack. The only person in the guild who could take that attack was Elwen. Gerald knew for sure that if it connected then he had won. Jack didn't move an inch though. He held his sword up vertically with one hand on the hilt and the other hand on the top of the sword for balance. The attack hit and Jack held it in place for a second. Gerald couldn't believe his eye. Jack finally pushed through the attack destroying it in the air leaving nothing, but a breeze in the wind. Gerald sat down on the floor feeling defeated, and Jack walked over to give him a hand. He had calmed down now after seeing Jack's strength, "Only fifty percent huh?" He said as he took Jack's hand.

"Well I may have exaggerated a little" Jack said with a smile. "After the warm-up I was at about sixty five or seventy percent."

"Well there's only one thing left to do then" Gerald said as he dropped his swords and bowed his head. "You won so you must take my life now. I have been disgraced as a warrior." Jack went wide eyed at this response and jumped back a bit.

"Whoa hold on just a second I'm not going to take your life! I didn't even want to fight in the first place."

"That's why you must do it. I over reacted and tried to kill you, so it's only right if you take my life as punishment for my actions." He closed his eyes and looked ready to welcome death. Jack put a hand on his shoulder, "Its fine, everyone in the guild had a right to be mad at me for leaving the way I did. I really don't blame you at all."

"Oh…well okay then" Gerald said kind of shockingly. "So, since I have the right to be angry though." He made a fist and hit Jack hard on top of his head. "That's for leaving the guild without telling anybody!"

Jack fell on his butt and started rubbing the top of his head with both hands. He let an "Ouch" slip out of his mouth which made Gerald feel better about the whole thing and starting walking back inside Theater Vancoor with a smile on his face. The people in the street around were watching the whole thing and when Jack looked back for Ridley he saw that Ridley was talking to the guards to clear everything up. He picked himself back up as she started walking towards him.

"Nice guild you joined, but it seems they should teach you to dodge fist as much as well as swords." Ridley said poking fun at Jack. He made an irritated face at her as they walked back into the building. Thanos was back at his seat.

"Hey, the chief said to go ahead to her room. While I was telling her about your arrival, Gerald over heard and practically flew down the stairs. He was one of those guys that weren't too happy you left. You were supposed to be his successor you know so he took it more personally than others. You did well at holding him off though. You have definitely improved a lot since the last time we saw you." Jack smiled a bit when he heard Thanos say that, but the happiness was quickly torn away by the aching of his head. "Anyways you better get a moving. Don't keep the chief waiting Jack." Jack and Ridley nodded as they headed up the stairs.

Jack got more and more anxious as they got closer to Elwen's room. The last time he saw her before the meeting at the castle was when she was hired by the knights to kill the fire dragon. With the help of his crew, and a lot of Herb Extract, they had overcome her. If it had been one on one she would have completely destroyed him. She acknowledge the fact that he had found someone to fight for and with little words after that, left him to do as he pleased. She hadn't seemed to hold any real resentment towards him for leaving the guild though. Jack just felt that he really needed to at least explain himself and his actions to her. Elwen deserved at least that much from him.

They appeared in front of Elwen's door and Jack went to knock, but he hesitated having his fist paused right in front of the door. Ridley saw this and decided to knock on the door herself. Jack shot his eyes towards her and before he could say a word he heard Elwen calling from the other side of the door to come in. Jack walked in very nervously as Ridley followed behind him. They sat on the chairs that were in front of Elwen's desk as she sat straight up behind the desk with very good posture. They sat in silence for a second before Elwen spoke up.

"Thanos said you needed to speak to me so speak up." She said this very calmly and with respect. The way she usually spoke. Jack opened his mouth, but she interrupted him. "First though, I'd like to say that an apology in not needed here. People don't know what paths they will eventually take, and if you are following your heart than who knows where you will go. But I will not hold resentment towards someone who was fighting for the one they love." Though she had a helmet on, both Jack and Ridley knew she was looking at Ridley as she said that. They both blushed a bit as she carried on. "Fighting for someone you love needs no apology and I will not accept an apology like that because it makes the person you were fighting for seem less valuable, and I can tell that you two are extremely valuable to each other." Jack hadn't thought of it that way. He looked at Ridley who was looking down a bit blushing and then back to Elwen.

"You are right Chief thank you." He said with a smile as she nodded. "Now that that's out of the way we will get right to it. We need three warriors to help fight against the celestial beings and we want you to be one of them. There isn't another warrior in Radiata I know that is stronger than you."

Elwen didn't waste any time in responding. "I'm sorry, but I won't be able to help you." Jack and Ridley shot out of their chairs.

"What why can't you?" Ridley said first. "According to Jack you are incredibly skilled and that is something we will absolutely need if we are going to stand a chance against them!"

"Yea, what Ridley said how come you won't join us?" both of them were staring at Elwen intensely.

"Simply because I can't join you two for I don't have much time left." That statement shocked Jack to the core as he slid down back to his chair open mouthed. Elwen removed her helmet revealing her face which looked very elderly. Jack remembered Jarvis saying he caught a glimpse of Elwen without her helmet on stating that she was the most beautiful things he'd ever seen and wouldn't put her past late twenties. Looking at her now she seemed to be in her seventies or eighties at least. "I've lived for a very long time you two. Longer than most humans get to live so don't feel sad for me." Even in this aged state she still looked very graceful and you could tell that Jarvis's story about her being the most beautiful girl was not an understatement.

"Jarvis had told me that he wouldn't have put you passed your twenties so why have you aged so badly?" Jack asked curiously with a frown on his face.

"As you may have heard, a long time ago there was a great warrior by the name of Alfred. He held the Avcoor long before I did. His goal in life was to bridge the gap between the fairy creatures and the humans. There was no man alive at the time that was a greater warrior or better friend than he. He had a partner named El and the two were deeply in love. Every day they were trying their best to change the world. One day, the fairy creatures and the humans got into a very big fight, and he was forced to choose between helping the fairy creatures, and helping the humans. He was conflicted trying to think of way to stop it without getting anyone hurt. As he was thinking, a fairy creature came from behind and caught El off guard wounding her deeply. Alfred flew into a rage and finished the fight against all the other fairy creatures single handedly. The humans cheered as they called him the hero who saved them, but he didn't care about that. He rushed to El's side as she was holding her wound. She was going to die, but he held up the holy Avcoor sword which somehow knew what he wanted to do and he put his life essence into it itself. Then he placed the sword unto El which healed her quickly. As she came to, Alfred collapsed. She held him in her arms mourning him as the other human soldiers gathered around doing the same. El took the sword as its new owner. Little did she know Alfred's life energy was so strong that it not only healed her rapidly, but dramatically extended her life."

Ridley was the first to speak up, "so…how long have you lived for?" Jack looked at her in surprise.

"Wait, El from the story is her?!" Jack asked mind boggled. Elwen smiled as Ridley looked at annoyed.

"How did you not pick up on that?"

"Well she said that Alfred's lovers name was El and her name is Elwen so I didn't connect the dots…"

"You are hopeless…" Ridley said as she put a hand to her head.

"Yes Jack, El from the story is me, and to answer your question I really don't know. I stopped counting. Though just by looking in the mirror I could see that my time is running out soon and as you were picked to be Gerald's successor I too have picked a successor and she will be more than worthy enough to aid you in your quest if you should choose her." Elwen said this as she slipped her helmet back on. She didn't like looking weak in front of others. "You may come in now." She said as the door behind them opened up.

Jack and Ridley looked back and to his surprise it was Alicia, one of the sergeants here at the guild. She walked in smiling stopping beside Elwen. "Alicia? She is your successor? If I remember correctly Gerald was the next in line here after you so why pick her?" At this Alicia shot a glance at him and within a second was on top of him pointing her sword at him from below only inches from his head. What made Jack freak out the most was that she was still smiling as she did this. Ridley got up about to pull out her ax when Alicia kicked her back into her seat and held her down with her foot. Her speed and strength caught the two of them off guard.

"That's enough Alicia release them." At Elwen's command Alicia jumped off them gracefully went back to Elwen's side. "You aren't the only one who has improved since you last been here Jack. Gerald may still be the deputy, but everyone here knows Alicia will be the next chief of Theater Vancoor after my passing."

"Interesting, but please allow me to test her skill before we decide whether or not to include her." Ridley said.

"Are you sure you want to do that?" Alicia said not breaking her smile. "I'm a lot stronger than Gerald."

"Don't worry about her." Jack said confidently, "Ridley would be more than a match for Gerald."

Ridley and Alicia locked eyes as Elwen stood up. "Okay then, we will head down to the training grounds."

They arrived there as Jack and Elwen stand back as the two females warriors get ready. Weapons out and looking ready, they slowly walk towards each other not wanting to act too hastily. Alicia's smile is gone now and a look of determination is in its place. Ridley looks just as determined. They both jump clashing weapons in mid air. Sword versus Ax is about to get very serious.