Chapter IX- Leyline Observatory
The moon was rising in Humphrey's Peak, and the streets had long since cleared. People were safe in their homes and the only ones wandering around were Virginia, Gallows and Clive.
They strolled down the alley towards Clive's house and were greeted by the shriek of joy that could have only come from Kaitlyn. The little girl in the blue dress ran over the threshold and into her father's arms.
"Daddy!" She cried. But she didn't have the energy to say anything else it seemed. As soon as Clive hugged her, she fell asleep.
Catherine came out and smiled. "You're late, Mr. Winslet."
"Mr. Winslet?" Clive asked with a chuckle. "I must be in trouble."
"Your daughter refused to go to bed. When she saw your friends earlier she just couldn't understand why you weren't with them," Catherine sighed.
"Let's put her to bed," Clive said. "And we can stay for the night, but we have to continue on our way in the morning."
"I understand," Catherine nodded.
Although, Clive knew that this constant traveling of his was taking a serious toll on their relationship. Catherine was simply too good for him. She bent over backwards, raising their daughter, taking care of their home and the countless other things she did to provide a suitable environment for Kaitlyn to grow up in and for Catherine and him to enjoy.
He thought that his Drifting days would have ended, but with the recent turn of events, along with being a wanted man, that couldn't happen just yet. And yet here stood his personal saint of a wife, promising to continue her efforts to afford him more borrowed time on which to live.
"I won't make anymore promises I can't keep," Clive said as he bowed and entered his bedroom.
He gave his wife and daughter hugs and kisses at the door the next day and the group set out, preparing themselves for the worst. It had been six days since the accident. If Jet hadn't found water, he would probably be dead.
They boarded Lombardia and she soared across the wasteland stretch. Once they were fully airborne, Virginia looked behind them and shouted.
"Look behind us!"
The town of Humprhey's Peak was engulfed in green almost as soon as she had said it. Soon, the entire Highland Plateau was a massive collection of plains and farmlands. Rivers forced their way through the plateau and the dunes in front of them were all that remained of the original wasteland. The dunes behind them were a brilliant ocean of blue.
"It stopped," Clive commented. "I wonder why it's moving in sets like this."
"I hope we don't have to find out," Gallows said. "If the world is completely reformed, then that means that Beatrice will have completed whatever it is she's after."
"It's so hard to believe that something so beautiful can be the work of a demon," Virginia sighed.
The dragon touched down in front of the strange laboratory structure, which the party recognized as the Leyline Observatory. Lombardia sniffed the air and warned her friends of the impending danger that she felt.
"This is not the place you recall. Be careful, little ones," Lombardia instructed.
Despite the dragons warning, the first few corridors were exactly as the group recalled. A set of hallways, with an elevator here and there.
However on the third floor, the dragon's warning was finally understood. The hallways were still the same physically, but they felt the evil air as clear as if the guardians were still with them. They heard a maniacal laughter that did not belong to Jet.
Clive and Gallows lifted their ARMS, and Virginia reached for her hips, before recalling that she was still unarmed.
"I left my ARMs in the Sandcraft," Virginia cursed. "You didn't find them with you by any chance?"
"I'm afraid not," Clive said.
"Yeah, me neither," Gallows replied.
"Well then, you boys had better take the lead," Virginia ordered. She had never truly appreciated how helpless she felt without her ARMs until this moment.
They entered a door on their right, which held countless habitation tubes for samples. The room where Jet had been artificially created. And standing in front of them was not Jet, but another familiar drifter.
"Janus…" Virginia quaked.
"It can't be. He's dead," Gallows shouted.
Janus turned his head. He looked at the party confused for a moment and then burst out laughing.
"Fooled you didn't I?" Janus laughed.
"What? You mean you weren't dead?" Clive asked.
"Huh? No, no! It's me, Maya!" Janus chortled.
And suddenly, a bright light flashed through Janus's body and standing in his place was their old rival, Maya Schroedinger.
"Maya!" Virginia cried running up to hug her. Maya backed off a little bit, but couldn't avoid Virginia's embrace. "You guys survived!"
"Please," Maya scoffed. "You think a few monsters are gonna take down the world's greatest Drifter party?"
Clive looked around the room. "You say 'party', but I don't see your comrades anywhere."
Maya stopped and looked back at Clive. "Oh, well, that's just the thing. I've been waiting for the guys to return, but they haven't come back yet. I was about to go in after them when you all showed up."
"Where did they go?" Gallows asked.
Maya bobbed her head to a door over her shoulder. "Something big is supposed to be in there. I sent Shady in to investigate, but he never came back. So I sent Todd and Alfred in next and they haven't reported back either. It's been about five minutes now, so I'm getting a little antsy."
"Why didn't you go in first?" Clive asked.
Maya blushed and turned around. "A true leader knows how to delegate authority to her subordinates."
"You weren't scared were you?" Gallows asked.
Maya scoffed and turned back around at Gallows. "Yeah right! It's called being stealthy. Anyways what are you doing here? And where's your little punk friend?"
"We got separated during a Sandcraft accident. We think he might've come here," Virginia explained.
"Well, we sure haven't seen him around here. But you're welcome to come with me. I'm going in that way. I figure now it'll be a full group of four going in," Maya explained.
"What happened to being stealthy?" Gallows asked.
"Oh, shut up!" Maya hissed.
The doorway was supposed to end in a short hall and a generator room. But instead, the hallway continued on downwards into the earth, just as Fila Del Fia and the train tunnel near Gunner's Heaven had.
"Jeez, no wonder they didn't report back," Maya exclaimed looking at the long path ahead of them. "This must go on for miles."
"So, Maya. I thought that you could only turn into characters you read about in books," Virginia began. "So how did you turn into Janus?"
"That's easy. Somebody wrote a book about him," Maya said. She pulled a small hardback novel out of her purse, which read: Janus Cascade: The Man Behind The Legend.
"There wasn't much to say in praise of that man," Virginia cursed. "What's the story like?"
"It tells the story about his upbringing, childhood, and how he rose to become the greatest Drifter of all time. It leaves out the details of him becoming a demon and trying to destroy the world, of course. It says that he died… trying to apprehend you all," Maya sighed.
"What?!" Virginia shouted. "They turned that man into a hero?"
"Frustrating, I know it. But it sells. People are excited to own the culmination of countless rumors surrounding that mans life," Maya scoffed. "If they only knew the half of it."
As they continued down the path, Virginia thought of another question.
"So what brought you guys here? Was it a contract or just a rumor about treasure?" Virginia asked.
"It's sort of a hip-pocket deal. We agreed to help this guy out by finding him some old machine that's supposed to be hidden here and in exchange he'll repair and give us this sandcraft he found," Maya said.
Virginia stopped in her tracks. "He says he found this Sandcraft?"
"Yeah. It sort of slid up to his cabin by the beach near Little Rock. He needs some machine in here to fix it, but he'll do it for us if we bring it to him. We also have to pay him a bit of Gella, but it's worth it for a Sandcraft. Although with the recent changes I've been hearing about a Sandcraft might not be worth that much to us. Of course he says that with this machine, the Sandcraft will be able to float on the water as well," Maya had a tendency to ramble before getting to the point of anything.
"So he'll turn this Sandcraft into a boat if you find this machine?" Virginia asked.
"Something like that," Maya nodded.
"I think that Sandcraft might be ours," Virginia said flatly.
Maya stopped and rubbed her jaw. "Well… I would feel bad about taking something that belonged to you guys. Then again, it's a freakin' Sandcraft. I'll tell you what, we'll resolve this matter the way we've resolved all disputes."
"Well fine, but you're outnumbered," Gallows pointed out.
"We'll take care of this first. We both have comrades in potential danger, you see," Maya noted.
The others nodded and they continued down into the earth.
The tunnel finally ended an standing before them were Maya's three comrades: A tall man with a black afro and katana, a small boy wearing a bandana, and a small cat-like creature with wings-Todd, Alfred, and Shady. Todd was Maya's bodyguard, Shady was the family pet, and Alfred was Maya's younger brother.
"What's the meaning of this Schroedingers?" Maya shouted.
Todd and Alfred looked back and Shady did a little hover-pirouette move.
"Maya!" Todd said bowing. "I apologize for keeping you waiting, but you must come see this!"
Virginia didn't like the sound of that, but Maya rushed over to the cliff's edge where they stood. Virginia, Gallows and Clive did the same. They looked down into the chasm and saw a massive mountain of gold, silver, rubies, emeralds, sapphires, and all manner of treasure.
"Whoa!" Gallows shouted. "We've hit the mother lode!"
"That's what we thought as well," said Todd.
"The problem is that there is no way to reach it safely from here," Shady said. "I mean I could fly down and grab bits and pieces but that job would take forever."
"I wouldn't have you do that," Maya nodded. It was true. Despite her greed, she would never put her desire above the safety of her comrades. "But go ahead and grab a small handful so we can see what we're dealing with. And be careful."
Shady flew down deep into the chasm and rested his paws on a particularly shiny looking ruby. When he tried to pull it up, the stone wouldn't budge.
"It's stuck!" Shady cursed.
"Damn it," Maya whispered. She then drew an ARM out of her hip holster and shouted. "Shady! Get out of there!"
Shady did as he was told and just in time. A massive tentacle of treasure appeared out of nowhere and smashed down on the ruby that Shady tried to grab.
"What the hell?!" Shady cursed.
"It's a monster!" Gallows shouted, drawing his ARM.
Clive followed suit and Todd drew his katana. Alfred pulled out some bombs from his backpack. Maya looked back at Virginia. She noticed Virginia fidget a little bit and, without asking a question, handed Virginia one of her ARMs.
"Thank you," Virgnia nodded, holding the Vantage Rage MM, a small pistol like her own Rapier.
The monster now revealed its true form, a massive octopus-like creature with eight tentacles that swayed around the room. Clive looked down at the creatures head and saw the same face that haunted his memories.
"It's the same monster!" Clive shouted. "It's the one that attacked us on the Dunes!"
"Time for a little payback!" Gallows grinned maniacally as he jumped over the edge of the chasm and began firing rapidly.
Todd was next, leaping over the edge and slashing the two tentacles that reached for him with his katana. Shady picked up Alfred, although he struggled to hold him up, and Alfred threw bombs onto the creatures head. Shady was whacked by a tentacle and Alfred fell twenty feet to the ground.
"Alfred!" Maya cried.
Alfred, however, seemed uninjured as he leapt out of the way of another smashing tentacle. Maya jumped over the edge headfirst, as if diving, and pulled a large gatling gun seemingly out of thin air. She opened fire on the beast with such recoil that her last few feet of falling appeared to be in slow motion.
She landed on the cold rocky ground and Virginia landed next to her, providing cover fire for Alfred. Clive was the last one to drop, because he had been using his rifle like a sniper, carefully distracting the monster from attacking the airborne girls.
Bullets were flying everywhere. Tentacles thrasing recklessly as Todd cut them off bit by bit. Suddenly, the tentacles stopped moving, and the head of the beast rose up to face them.
It wailed in a voice that Gallows recognized.
"That's one of the voices I heard in Fila Del Fia," Gallows shouted.
"The terraformation has begun. Soon this planet will be mine. There is nothing you can do to stop it," The monster hissed.
"Maybe not," came a harsh voice. "But we can shut you up."
A six-shot burst rang out, hitting the monster square in the head. It stopped moving and slumped onto the ground again, dead. Out of the shadows, stepped Jet Enduro.