Chapter 6

A/N: over 16,000 words total. Woohoo. Happy Turkey day Americans. Stay for the second A/N.

The air was rent with shrieks and blaze. The man reached blindly, groping for it. He found it and screamed in triumph and fear. And then it was gone. The fire roared and the ground pitched and the man watched, almost detachedly now that it was gone, as his arms were consumed in light and smoke.

Jules came to awakening slowly, fighting his way from the ancient dream. Sitting in his bed he breathed deep, calming himself with the techniques he had been taught during his travels. Many ideas and ideologies had been known in the places he had traveled. He subscribed to only a few of the many, though found them most suited for him. Leaning against the wall that his bed stood against, he allowed a memory to wash over him, to cleanse the dream of what he believed, he hoped, had never happened.

…

The Endeavor glinted in the dying light. The ground beneath Jules boot's vibrated slightly, as the city raced for its next meal. Airships climbed into the sky, avoiding the spark-riddled towers of smoke from the cities boilers. Workers and traders bustled about on the upper tiers, but a few stayed to watch the strange spectacle. To witness the strange bit of old-tech, a heavier then aircraft, possibly succeed would be astounding. Everyone would want one when the engineers were finished with the tests. But all Jules wanted was to be gone, and soon.

"Pick up the pace already." Jules glared at the men fueling the craft for several moments before realizing how he was acting. Palming his head, Jules loudly apologized to the workers, which only served to confuse them, because they hadn't heard Jules's order. Jules pulled his head up to see Verne approaching with the mayor. They had decided on the aliases not long after they had met, as their real names, while not well known, were rather strange in the multiverse.

"Mister Direktor, it's an honor to have you here to see this, but you needn't come." This was typical Jules faire, modest and kind to a fault. He had been different once, but this was based on the word of Verne and she rarely managed to seem sane when speaking about it.

"Nonsense, our engineers have been studying this tech for years, and we've never came this close. You sir, are a genius."

Jules eye's darkened with memories. "I'm not a genius, just a young man. And under any condition it's your men who have been most helpful. I and my companion would never have come anywhere close to this without your help."

"Oh you're too kind Jules." There was a difference between Jules and the Direktor. While the Direktor was merely kissing up to Jules, trying to have him stay, Jules was completely honest, and truly thankful for the help.

And dead set on leaving.

"Launch time is coming," Verne interjected impatiently. "We have a deadline to meet and standing here trading complements isn't helping. Has the Endeavor been readied?"

The Direktor smugly nodded. "Yes the Endeavor is prepared for its maiden voyage. I reckon that the green storm will have something coming to them if they try to attack us again. We've only now-"

"Yes, yes, yes. We know all that. We were here when it happened." Verne shut the mayor down. "The Endeavor's blueprints aren't for sale when you can make more. You can drop the attempt to buy it from us."

The Direktor glowered at her, before turning back to the workers and shouting for them to hurry. Jules had a similar look of annoyance on his face, but when he realized that he did, he tried to relax it to a more neutral expression. Verne still caught him with the look on his face.

"Don't even think about telling me off. We both know that you would have done the same thing." Verne's glare almost got to Jules. Almost.

"I wouldn't have been that direct, Verne. I would have kind, eloquent-."

"Bull." Verne's stare softened. "You would have been cruel, selfish, and disarming. And you would have enjoyed it."

Jules sighed. So this was where the conversation was turning.

"It's always been who you are Jules, right to the core. It's always been you-."

Jules, for once disregarding courtesy, spoke over her, overriding the use of her name for him. "It's never been me. It's never been who I was." Jules was on the defensive. "I've always been a plainspoken person. A good man who never did what you, or that mad traveler, said I had. I have to believe that."

"Why do you have to believe it? Why can't you accept who you've been?" Verne pleaded. A tear rolled down her cheek. Jules already had her in his arms before she started sobbing. "You're the only reason that I've tried to return. Only because I loved you, ever since we met back there."

Jules held her tighter. Her sobs, her breath, her very heartbeat reached into his soul, wringing it in sympathy and love. He wanted to carry her to their room on the second tier, lay her on his bed and prove that he loved her to. Suddenly his left hand weighed a ton.

"If I was the person you say I was, then I could never love you." He whispered into her ear. The world around them blurred, and the two were alone, content in their little privacy.

"When we get back, what are we going to do?" Verne had switched topics and languages. They hadn't invented a secret language, simply taken one they had both known and used it when they wanted to be alone. Almost no one had known it during their travels, and so it had become their own private way of speaking.

"Probably try and find the traveler and send him though the portal. If we're lucky, everything will have fallen into place before that. Then we get on with our lives. I certainly look my legal age now, even if I don't act like it. Employment shouldn't be too hard to find for us."

Verne pulled away from Jules, sniffing a little. "Then can we… well, you know, get on with it?"

Jules grimaced, waving his left hand in a gesture that, from a distance would seem obscene, but in the immediate area simply showed off a golden ring. "I'll have to get an annulment for this first. It shouldn't be too hard for me. Then we'll have to get married, and that'll be a terror to plan. Then there's the honeymoon, then buying a house, maybe planning for kids-."

"You're ignoring the question." Verne was always rude when she wanted an answer. Though for a moment she looked thoughtful. "You know, a few kids wouldn't be too bad. We could handle it."

Jules chuckled darkly. "And what makes you say that?"

Verne cracked a smile. "Just some female intuition. And maybe the fact you've already raised two."

"I never saw it all the way through. They were only children when I left."

Verne was still smiling when the Direktor, looking slightly happier and dragging the head engineer behind him, returned. "It would appear that we are ready to fly. Jules, Verne, if you would kindly?"

Jules looked up into the clouds. "Are we in the specified location? We can't risk running into turbulence at the heights we could reach."

The head engineer (a thin, balding man) nodded. "We have reached the center of the great hunting grounds. The air will remain steady enough for you."

Verne was already approaching the Endeavor. Jules answered before following, "We'll put her through her paces, then check for altitude, speed, turning radius and dive rate."

Jules and Verne climbed into the cockpit. "Do you have it?" The question was raised fast enough for Verne to reply in the affirmative and still let Jules speak over the intercom without raising any suspicions.

"We are ready when you'll ready."

The head engineer brought a checklist to his eyes, trying to see against the glare of the sun. "Wind bearing at 3 miles per hour. The city is slowing for takeoff."

The enormous city began to slow from idle speed to stop. The treads far below began to slide over the soft earth. Jules waited for the signal. The city had turned with the wind to let him takeoff with the stillest air possible. A man raced onto the launch lane, brought out flare gun and glanced at his watch. Jules could almost feel the word as it reached him over the intercom.

"Prime."

Jules opened the engine port. Power flowed over the wing wires, cool plasma coating them with semi-solid force. The whine of the ascending engine turned to a roar. The plasma turned pale electric blue, the down force sweeping the deck with a sharp, lukewarm wind. The Endeavor was ready.

"Launch."

The man with the flare gun triggered the mechanism inside said tool and turned and ran. Jules brought the controls, a pair of padded levers, back far. The ethereal wings sifted colors to an angry yellow, shoving the Endeavor forward. Jules was forced into his seat by the climbing g-forces. Verne yelped as the Endeavor shot towards the edge of the tier. Jules forced the saunters forward, the wing color shifting into a more neutral green tint. Suddenly the whole craft was airborne.

Jules almost couldn't believe it. Here they were him and the love of his life, hurtling at breakneck pace, climbing into the sky. Fireworks sprouted off of the cities upper tiers. Radio chatter told him that the engineers were monitoring every movement of the Endeavor, checking for stresses in the energy wings and whatever else they had to do. Jules waited for the G's to dissipate, and then reached for a small switch he had installed in the cockpit. He had added many tricks into the Endeavor that the engineers were not aware of. This particular bit of technology turned the plasma runoff into a sort of shield. That had the side effect of rendering the Endeavor invisible.

It seemed that the Endeavor had vanished into thin air.

Engineers scrambled to get eyes on the aircraft. Jules felt a sharp pain of guilt as he brought the Endeavor on course for the portal region. Verne tapped his shoulder. "You had to do it. It's their faults for not figuring out what we had planned."

Jules face-palmed again. Verne had the annoying quality of being both right and extremely smug when she wanted to. He really didn't want to think that he had just dashed the hopes for dozens of aspiring men and women. So he concentrated on flying and reaching the portal.

"Give me the Crystal."

Verne brought a small crystal out of her bag. It wasn't much to look at. Ruby red and about the size of a curled fist, the crystal was a glaring reminder of what Jules had to do.

"Not that one, the old one." Jules reached back and took hold of the crystal Verne had given him. This one was much smaller, barely larger than the last joint on Jules's pinky finger. It had served him well in his three years of travel, and had saved him many times over. This would be its last use, but he hoped that it would make it through with them. It held sentimental value to him and he didn't want to part with it.

Bringing it up to his face Jules concentrated on it. "I know where and when I want to go. This is my wish."

The crystal glowed and the air outside became a tempest. The time tunnel opened-

…

Jules was brought out of the memory by a blank mental screen. Cursing himself, Jules tried to remember the details of the tunnel, which was nearly impossible due to the tunnels psycho-temporal nature. But he managed, diving into the memory again.

…

The Crystal's light died out. Jules opened his eyes as the storm rushed past. His psyche reached out of its normal boundaries, reaching to meet Verne's. The two met in the middle, so close as to be almost one. This, in Jules's opinion, was better than sex.

"Oh you wish." The thought came to him from across the void, racing both a thousand miles and only a few inches all the same. Jules watched as the tunnel rolled past them, serenely enjoying the image. A memory of his children surfaced for a moment, though Jules banished it with a thought. He couldn't risk changing course here. Who knew the effects at the other end? It could throw them completely off course, or jam the gate shut from the over side.

Or force a connection.

The tunnel was nearing its end. Airplanes, ships, trains, all manners of transportation rushed past. The portal opened at the end. Jules was vaguely aware of something entering the tunnel ahead, but chose to ignore it, dismissing it as an illusion, something not uncommon in the tunnel. It wasn't anything he would care about, right.

Now what have I said about ignorance?

The air beyond the portal buffeted the Endeavor as Jules guided it out. Now just to land somewhere…

…

Jules exhaled slowly, a long sigh escaping its confines in his more than weary chest. The idle thought of his children had forced the portal to remain open, even opening it two days ahead of time. And now there was someone in danger because of him. And not just anyone in danger either…

Jules sighed again, though this one turned into a yawn. Regardless of what he said, he apparently had the same sort of luck in life as… some other people said he once did. Jules waited for Verne to speak. He had been aware of her wakefulness for some time now, though hadn't let her now he had caught her eavesdropping. Finally Verne pulled herself up off the bed and crossed the small room to him.

"Bad dream?"

Jules nodded. "Yeah."

"Same dream?"

Jules sighed. "Yeah."

Verne sat down next to him. "You have to stop beating yourself over that. You did the right thing."

Jules waited for her to continue on, and was surprised when she didn't. Verne rarely let him have a free word when she thought she was right (especially when she was, in fact, right). But he had learned from the past that such chances should not be let past.

"I abandoned them. They all think I'm dead."

"But you're not. And if you wanted to you could always find the universe again."

"I can't. If I waltz right out of the portal, looking like… like this, then they're think I'm some sort of mad man."

Verne's hand caressed Jules's chin. "But you're not Jules. And you know it."

Jules wrapped his arm around Verne. "I know, but that doesn't change the fact that they still won't believe it. Even now, I can't be sure if they'll be able to handle the shock. It would be impossible."

Verne rested her head on his shoulder. "And what if they believe you? Then what do you do?"

Jules twisted, resting Verne's head on his chest. "Then I have my children back. I have my life back."

Jules knew that their position was not terribly uncomfortable, almost downright pleasant. But it wasn't the embrace he could enjoy with Verne. His had a wife, even here, even now. He didn't believe in relativistic polygamy, (the idea of having a wife for each dimension) even if he wasn't against the idea of it in principle. He was just old fashioned in the sense of love. A smile crossed his face. Anyone who listened to him for just five minutes could agree that he wasn't old fashioned.

Verne twisted her head to look up at him. "You know, the walls seem pretty thick. If we just keep quiet…"

"No."

"Killjoy." Verne lightly thumped him on the back, and then walked back to her bunk. Jules waited for her to start snoring before standing up. Putting on the trefoil hat he used to great effect, Jules stepped out into the hall. The Leviathan hummed above him, the whole ship pulsing with life, the outside slipping past beneath it. It had seen a great many things in the ten years it had lived. Jules reminded himself to ask Verne to talk to the whale when she had the time.

Something creaked behind Jules, followed by a voice. "Oh I sorry Jaspert, I didn't know you were…" Jules turned to face the speaker. Alek fumbled for an apology, though stopped when he realized he wasn't speaking to coxswain Sharp.

"Good evening prince Aleksandar. What are you doing at this late hour?" Alek grimaced, unwilling to talk. Jules turned back to the window he had been looking out of. "I was just getting some air. You may join me if you wish."

Alek paused and then walked over to the window. "I was just getting some air as well."

Jules smiled. "And you weren't going for a walk were you? Not going off to visit someone you knew, right? No don't even answer that, I already know what you're going to say. I've seen every trick that you young people have come up with. My children have tried everything on me."

Alek's confused look amused Jules a little bit, if a bit guiltily. "Aren't you a little young yourself for children?"

Jules's smile did carry a genuine look of happiness. "I'm older then I look, and smarter than I have a right to be. I had two children. A boy that was smart and funny. And a girl that would dream of being a soldier one day. She was actually a little tomboyish, though you would have no idea what that was like. She dreamed of flying."

Both stayed quiet for a second, and then Alek said, "Just a thought. How would tell if a girl was dressed like a soldier, and pretending to be a boy? How would you tell if he was a girl?"

Jules pondered this for a moment, before answering; "Well you would want to look at their neck."

"Umm…"

Jules reached for Alek's throat, catching it and squeezing. He waited as Alek struggled against his grip. Finally letting go, Jules rubbed Alek's neck. "This, here, is the Adam's apple. It's a bulge on your trachea, unique to the male gender. If you get someone worried or scared, then they're Adam's apple will become much more prominent. That isn't the easiest way to check a person's gender, but it's the most innocuous."

Alek rubbed his own throat, sore. He looked out the window, opening his mouth as though to say more, but stopping in case Jules wanted to strangle him again. Instead he and Jules watched the ground slip by. "This is what she would have loved about flying. The freedom, the whole skies open for you." Jules smiled at the memory. The smile didn't last long though.

"What's that in the distance?" Alek's question was strange enough to distract Jules from his reverie. Looking in the direction he was pointing Jules saw a remote glow, obviously miles out from the airships. Alek covered his eyes, trying to catch a defined appearance from the dark mess of night. Jules brought out his spyglass. It didn't look like a normal telescope, much more a square of clear crystal. Bringing it up to his eyes, the glass turned bright amber, the image in the distance growing to a definite shape.

"You might want to see this." Jules handed the glass to Alek, who looked quizzically at the glass before bringing it to his face. It took a few tries before he could look though it and not gasp and see the approaching shape. The moment he did, he gasped and dropped the crystal. "Hey watch that, it's important to me." Jules stooped to pick up the glass, though he knew that it wasn't broken. There were steel alloys that could take less beating then the glass. Bringing to his face Jules watched the approaching walker.

Eight massive legs heaved the land ship at nearly ninety miles an hour, if his glass was to be believed. Midway down the body a set pneumatic launch cannons stood ready to unleash a storm of airplanes. A radio aerial sat on the bow, with a second tower halfway back down the frame that looked like a sort of observation deck accompanying it.

"Alek, do you recognize that land ship? Alek?" Alek stood stock still, staring into the distance. "Alek, what is that?" Jules reach for him again, though Alek flinched away. "What is that?"

Alek turned to Jules and spoke in a frightened whisper. "It's the Herkules, and it has a Tesla cannon mounted on it. It's found us."

A/N: I'm glad that this turned out so well. A little bit of a backstory for Jules and Verne, who technically aren't OC's. By the way, did anyone understand the references to the Mortal Engines saga? I'm reading my way through them so it's a lot of fun. If anyone figures anything out about the OC's, DON'T say anything. I'm trying to figure it out myself.

Oh and due to technical issues, I will not be uploading anything next week. Sorry, but the story is not over yet.