A/N: I am soooooooooooooooo sorry for not updating for so long. Where has the time gone, you ask? Well...I had a bit of writers block at first, and then a dark mood came over me, forcing me to only write dark things (AKA, my other fanfiction Kidnap.) That dark mood lasted for about a week, and then I kinda forgot about Pendragon Memory. Thanks to Emily for reminding me about it. Hehe. Anyways, I hope updating now makes up for the lack of updating. And I don't have school for the next 5 days, so I might even update again! Yay! On to the chapter...
"A hidden territory?" exclaimed Spader. "But Press told me that there were only ten existing territories! And Press didn't lie, Emel."
"I know," she said. "You'll get a better explanation of everything later. For now, know that Exem officially became a territory when you guys lost Veelox to Saint Dane." With that, Emel walked to the very edge of the cliff and stared into the skies. "Exem!" she cried, and she was whisked off her feet and into the sky. "Come on, guys!" she turned around and called back, a combination look of calm and happiness on her face. Bobby stepped closer to the edge of the cliff and stared up into the sky, watching Emel fly away.
"Exem!" he hesitantly called, and was lifted off his feet into the skies above him. Peacefully, he flew through the clouds and higher and higher into the sky. Bobby's ears popped, but he barley noticed. This was so calming, more calming than a flume ride could ever do. Bobby looked upwards, and couldn't believe what he saw. One minute, Emel was smiling down at him, and the next, two massive white wings had unfurled from her back. They're beautiful, thought Bobby, as his mind asked questions like: Is Emel an angel? What is Exem? All his questions were answered as Bobby neared a humongous patch of clouds all clustered together. The patch of clouds came closer and closer until Bobby entered it, passing through a few rainy clouds before he landed on a platform. The platform seemed to made of glass, and you could see the clouds below him through it. Above him, where the sky should have been was more clouds clustered close together.
"It's called the hidden territory for a reason, Pendragon," Emel said, coming up beside him. Her wings were put away, and Bobby decided he would ask the girl about them later. For now, he needed to look around at this place. Far in the distance was a city, with buildings of all shapes and sizes. Bobby could only see the general outline, but it looked amazing. Especially one building in particular, that stretched higher up than Bobby could see. "That's the Tower of Angels," Emel explained. "We'll visit there in a minute. For now, let's wait for everyone else to get here and then we'll go."
The other Travelers soon began to arrive, with expressions identical to Bobby's on their faces: Disbelief, shock, amazement, and fear. They glanced around the area, gasping when they saw the Tower of Angels. Bobby noticed wings retracting into Courtney's back as she landed last on the platform surrounded by clouds.
"This place..." she said, a dazed look on her face. "I've been here before..."
"Welcome to the hidden territory, Exem, everybody!" Emel said happily. "This is my home territory. And what a place it is. C'mon, lets go into the city!" Emel turned around and began to jog. Everyone followed pace, jogging alongside the girl. The Travelers came closer and closer to the city, until they finally arrived at a humongous iron gate. Two men unarmed guards, standing on each side of the gate, wearing white robes greeted them.
"Welcome back, Emel!" the guard standing on the left said happily. "We've all missed you here. I take it the mission went well?"
"It went okay," she said. "Not exactly as we had planned, but well enough. Can we get through? I need to see somebody. It's really important."
"Sure," the guard standing on the right said. The guard then glanced upwards, motioning for a man sitting on top of the gate to flip a switch and open the gate. The man nodded at the guard, and the gates slowly opened with a loud creaking sound. Slowly, the Travelers stepped inside the gates and into Exem.
As the Travelers stepped into Exem, they noticed something startling. There were barely any inhabitants. Bobby didn't even count fifty people as they walked closer and closer to the Tower of Angels.
Emel," Bobby said.
"Yes, Bobby?" she said, turning around and walking backwards through the very un-crowded streets.
"Why are the city streets so empty? I haven't even counted fifty people yet."
"You'll find out in a minute," Emel said. They arrived at the Tower of Angels, the door guarded by another weaponless man in a white robe.
"Welcome back, Miss Palan!" the man said. He looked about the same age as Emel, and smiled as Emel politely asked to pass. "Of course," he said. "Go right on ahead." The guard stepped aside.
"Thank you, Sephir." Emel said, and the double doors of the tower opened soundlessly by themselves. Miss Palan? thought Bobby. Is Emel part of a royal family? Is she a princess? Bobby's mind was abuzz with numerous thoughts and questions. Hopefully they would all be answered soon.
The inside of the tower was nothing like Bobby had expected it to be. He had expected medieval, torches and candles. Instead, he found a completely white tower, the brightness of the light spanning all the way to the top of the tower, which was very high above them.
"Welcome," Emel said. "To the Tower of Angels, everybody! We'll be going pretty close to the top, so prepare for a long journey." With that, she started up at the ceiling for a moment. Bobby had no clue how they would get to the top floor, since there weren't any staircases in sight. "Top floor!" Emel yelled, and Bobby and the rest of the Travelers were forced upwards off their feet quickly and flew upwards, towards the top of the humongous tower.
Higher and higher the Travelers flew upwards, not seeing a soul as they did. Bobby's ears popped once, twice...three times before Emel called over and told them that they were almost at the top floor. The Travelers all cheered; they had waited for answers and the time to get them was here. Once the journey was completed, the Travelers were standing on a platform suspended high in the air. In the center of the platform was a large chair, a throne possibly. A man in a white robe like all the other men wore was sitting in this chair, surrounded by men and women, the women wearing garments identical to the one that Courtney had worn since Bobby had brought her back from the dead.
"Hello, Travelers," the man sitting in the chair said. He spoke in almost a whisper, yet the Travelers could hear him perfectly. "And hello, Emel, my daughter! Come and give your father a hug!" Emel ran and captured the man in a tight bear hug. "I've missed you," he said.
"And you, father." Emel said, smiling.
"How did the mission go? I didn't expect you to be back so soon." Emel let go of her father and took a few cautious steps backwards.
"Well, father, I eh...failed. Something horrible happened. Everything went perfectly; Pendragon and I stole the S.Bomb easily, and planted it on Ibara. Unfortunately, Saint Dane found us quicker than we thought, and right as the bomb was about to explode, he picked it up and...threw it into the flume." Bobby expected the man to explode in anger. Instead, Emel's father calmly nodded at the news.
"I see..." he said calmly, no hint of anger in his voice at all. "That explains why this young girl is here now." Emel's father motioned for someone to step forward. To everyone's surprise, Saangi stepped forward, clothed in a white nightgown like Courtney's.
"Bobby!" she said, and instantly ran forward to hug him. The two embraced for about a minute, until Emel's father cleared his throat and they broke apart.
"How is Saangi here?" shouted Spader from behind Bobby. "She died when the flume blew up!"
"So you haven't figured it out, then." Emel's father said. "Exem is a special territory. I'll tell you everything about it later, but for now, I'll tell you this: Exem is where the Travelers go after they die." With that, the man motioned behind him again, and the people stepped forward so that their faces could be seen clearly.
A hand suddenly clamped down on Bobby's shoulder. He whipped around instantly to see a face he hadn't seen in many, many years.
"Uncle Press?" he said in shock. The two instantly hugged.
"I told you we'd meet again, didn't I, Bobby?" He broke off the hug. "It's good to see you again, kid. I'm very proud of you for what you've done in the past as the Lead Traveler. And now, I'm leaving it up to you to destroy Saint Dane once again."
"I'll do it, Press." Bobby said, staring straight into his uncle's eyes. Press nodded in response, and clapped him on the back.
"Good to see you again, Bobby."
"And you," the two hugged once more as another shadow came up behind Bobby.
"Bobby," said a male voice. Bobby turned around to see Mark Dimond staring at him.
"Mark!" he said. Instantly the two best friends hugged, and began chatting.
"I'm sorry that I let Saint Dane take control of me all those years ago, Bobby. I put all of us in danger."
"It's okay, Mark." Bobby said. "It's not your fault."
For the next hour or so, Bobby chatted with all of the Travelers who had died to defeat the demon Traveler. Finally, Emel's father's whispery voice cut through all others.
"Sorry to break up the reunions," he said. "But it's time that I tell all of you something."
"And just what are you going to tell us?" Cid asked, as everyone gathered around his chair and sat down on the platform.
"I'm telling you about Exem," he said, and then paused. "And the origin of the Travelers."
A/N: Phew! I'm finished with another chapter. Hopefully the next chapter will be easy to write...but then again I thought this one would be too. Heh. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter...Exem is a cool place, no? I'd been planning of having a new territory since I started writing Darkness, and now I finally got to do it! I promise you guys I'll update faster next time, maybe in the next few days if you're lucky. Thanks to Uchiha James, PotatoPuff, and Lady Pendragon for reviewing my sucky story! -leaves cookies and stuff-