HELLOOOOOOOOO
We're back! I'm sorry it's been a moment, I've been busy and also away from home, so I couldn't really write, but now I've got a new chapter introducing two of my favourite characters :3
This one is a little shorter than usual, but I have nothing else I need to write here. This chapter also concludes a sort of 'Part One'. There are four parts to this story, though I'm not sure yet how long each will be. I'll be sure to note when each ends, though.
A huge thanks to everyone who has been reading so far and leaving their comments. All of you are very much appreciated :D
Without further ado, I present to you, the next chapter!
It grew closer to the evening before Lukas finally decided to start heading back into Beacontown, still numb and utterly stunned.
He'd run out of tears to cry already that day, and his throat had just sort of felt dry as he'd stood there and stared at his hands and thought. He still felt numb, that same echoing sensation of how he deserved everything that had been said to him lingering, until he started walking. Then, and only then, had his thoughts begun to cycle.
First came the sadness.
I don't understand, why is he so upset? Did I really do that bad a job at being a friend? I feel so…ashamed. Did I ignore all the signs? Could I have done any better? What if Jesse's gang think I'm a terrible, ignorant friend too?
Then he was angry.
What kind of expectation does he have that he thinks I have to die to prove I'm a good friend? He's being unrealistic- you did everything in your power to save them! You tried your best! You reunited the Order of the Stone, for Admin's sake!
Last was the guilt.
I guess he's right…I really did just abandon them when things went wrong. It's like how I froze up when we were trying to go through the Nether Portal. I just couldn't do anything but run. I suppose I am a coward…I suppose I am a pretty bad friend.
And so his thoughts were still in a tumult when he found himself back at Beacontown's gates. He hadn't even clocked half the journey, his feet had just taken him where he needed to go. Now he was there, however, he found himself wondering where he was to go. He wasn't sure if he wanted to see anyone, whether it was Maya and Gill or Jesse's gang. He wasn't even sure if wanted to talk tonight. He just wanted to be alone.
People were beginning to relax a bit more in the late afternoon sun now, their building work completed for the day. He saw people lounging around and chatting on what was to be their front decks. When they saw him go by, they'd wave, and he'd quickly try to smile and wave back, trying not to let his unstable insides show through.
In the night, most people would place their beds down in a large temporary shelter that had been constructed to keep mobs out while houses were still being constructed. He had been using it, like both his friend circles had been, but he wasn't sure if he wanted to go back to it tonight. He wasn't sure if Aiden would let him, provided he got there first. But at the same time, he knew that everyone else would be worried if they didn't see him, especially given his emotional state that day. Why was it all so confusing?
Sighing, Lukas rubbed his head, checked there was no one around to see him, and leant against a stone wall. His head hurt from everything, and he was considering that this might be the worst day of his life. He couldn't even cry anymore. He was just left feeling small and confused.
What the hell am I supposed to do with myself? Where do I go now? What do I do? Is Aiden's mood a fluke or does he truly hate me? What about the rest of the Ocelots? Jesse's gang?
He covered his face with his hands as though shielding himself from the rest of the world, though he truly wished to be free of the thoughts crowding his head. It was all just so complicated. Too complicated.
He tried just taking deep breaths to calm himself down, but it did nothing to shake the gloom that had settled over him. Sighing, he let his head drop against the wall behind him and he just stared out, hoping he could at least achieve some peace and quiet, when all of a sudden he heard angry, hushed voices move into hearing range behind him, somewhere through the wall.
"I'm just saying-"
"And I'm not interested! I don't want to get involved with any of your schemes, Ivor!"
Though he really didn't want to get involved with anything else, Lukas found himself listening in close. He couldn't make out many details of the voices, but Ivor's name being said was an obvious cue. The other person however, he wasn't sure.
Curious, he turned to his right (his better ear) and pressed himself against the wall, trying to hear more clearly. What were they so angry about? What 'scheme' was Ivor cooking up now?
"It's not a scheme," Ivor replied, trying to keep his voice level by the sounds of things, "I'm just saying. Something seems off."
"Something seems off so you want to start some secret little club to talk about it?" the other person responded with a hint of condescension, "I'm sorry, but I'd argue that's treason."
Ivor snorted, "It's not treason if it's justified."
"And what if it isn't? What if you're just being the crazy man you are? It's been barely a week Ivor," the second person took on a brief sympathetic tone, "I understand being shook up and paranoid after everything…but…" the voice hardened, "it's hard to forget what you did. I'm sorry that I can't just go back to trusting you after everything, but I have to say it's understandable."
"Ellegaard-"
"It's hard to forget you killed Magnus. Our friend. I hated the lie too, but you- you should have just left it be. Your own bitterness tore people's lives apart. And now you're proposing some bizarre new theory, just…" Ellegaard sighed,"just leave it be, Ivor. Don't cause any more damage."
So he's talking to Ellegaard huh…Lukas noted to himself as he continued to listen in. There was a long pause before Ivor tried again.
"Look, Ellegaard, I'm telling you," he seemed to sigh, debating his words, "something is going on here. I need your help. We've had our differences, we've made our mistakes, but please. Just this once, trust me again."
There was another pause. Then, another long, heavy sigh and Ellegaard finally responded, "I can't. I'm leaving for Redstonia tomorrow. Have a good day, Ivor."
There was no response, only the slight pat-pat of fading footsteps. Curious, Lukas pressed himself further into the wall in the hopes of listening for anything more, maybe Gabriel was there too, who knew, but instead the sharp, loud sound of someone clearing their throat next to him startled him completely out of it. He yelped and jolted back, his heart almost stopping in fright and the guilt of being caught eavesdropping. Whipping around, he found himself face-to-face with two strangers he hadn't seen in Beacontown before, and he couldn't tell if that was better than it being someone he knew.
The first person in front of him was a slim woman with ruler-straight platinum blonde hair and olive eyes. She wore a purple pinstripe suit which would have likely been a bold fashion choice for anyone else, but she pulled off perfectly. She was the one who had coughed, it seemed, and now stood with her arms crossed and perfect posture looking at him impatiently. Behind her, a little crumpled in posture, was a shorter man with tousled black hair, thick-rimmed glasses and dark eyes. His nervous disposition was visible from the way he stood curled in on himself behind the woman. He carried a clipboard.
To his surprise as he calmed down, the woman flashed him a glamorous smile like she hadn't just caught him eavesdropping, or at the very least smushed against a wall.
"Are you Lukas?" she asked, her tone pleasant, "My name is Stella."
"Stella," he replied, caught off-guard, "uh, yeah, I'm Lukas. What…can I help you with?"
"A pleasure to meet you, Lukas, a true honour," she took his hand without him offering it and shook it strongly, "I am a huge fan of all you have done to help us. Really, I could only bear witness to the Witherstorm from afar, so your aid in defeating it is an incredible feat to me."
Awkward and taken aback, Lukas tried to give her his best smile back, "Uh…no problem."
"Of course it would seem not a problem for you!" she gasped, then giggled to herself, "You'll have to excuse me, it's not often we see a hero in the flesh. Is it Radar?"
The man behind her jolted to attention, "U-uh, no, ma'am."
She gave him a stern look and he laughed nervously and shrunk back again.
"Well, either way we're here to visit the man in charge," she regained her seriousness, "you know, Aiden."
Lukas' mood fell as he found himself reminded of it all, "Ah, yes. I suppose that is why you'd come here."
Stella nodded, "Of course. Would you be so kind as to guide me to him? I have business that I would rather like to discuss with him."
He winced, "Well…I don't think I could take you to him, but he usually hangs around the Order Hall. It's just up this street and then to the right."
"Ah, thank you ever so kindly, Lukas," Stella gave him a curtsey, "I'm sure I'll be seeing you around."
"Uh, yeah. I'm sure you will."
"Of course. Come on then, Radar."
"Uh, y-yes ma'am."
Lukas watched as she set off again up the street, Radar in tow. Hesitantly, he turned back around and gave Lukas a little wave, which Lukas smiled at and returned. What a strange encounter.
Briefly he wondered what she wanted with Aiden. Perhaps she was one of the many fans that just wanted to fangirl over how great a man he was since he'd saved the world. Either that, or she had some sort of actual business proposal. Whether it was something worth it or not, Aiden would decide, though Lukas guessed the man would enjoy having at least the power of the decision.
He stared after them until they were out of sight, then back up at the sky. She would have to get in quick if she wanted to speak to Aiden; the sun was now beginning to set. As dusky browns and oranges swirled across the sky, Lukas once again found himself alone with his thoughts, and the problem of where even to go from here.
After a long while of thinking and stressing to the point of a headache, Lukas finally shook his head and clenched his fists, thinking only a simple message:
Screw this. I need somewhere to sleep, and the better people around here will be worried about me. Besides, I helped save these people too. He can't kick me out. It's not his town.
Frowning, his tumultuous insides only temporarily set, Lukas ran a hand through his blond hair and headed back to where he thought his other friends would be.
If Aiden wants to boss me around like I'm just some nobody, he'll have to deal with the others first, and good luck to him for getting through that.
It annoyed Aiden to see Maya and Gill's shocked faces as he recounted what had transpired in the day to them.
In fact, it took all his control to merely keep drumming his fingers against his arms and not use them to shut Gill's gaping mouth.
He didn't understand why they were so surprised; they too had seen how Lukas had betrayed them! They were there when he came out of the dark, claiming all the praise for himself and then dragged them off to be friends with the Order of the Losers. They'd seen how quickly he'd abandoned them for those Netherspawn. So why didn't they understand?
"So…you just want us to…" Maya gestured vaguely, trying to wrap her head around his words, "just…stop talking to him? After all this time, just like that?"
"Yes, just like that," he spat back, irritated when she flinched, "it's not that difficult to understand."
"But…he's our friend, dude," Gill chimed back in, "we can't just kick him out like that."
"Yeah, Aiden," Maya shook her head, "it doesn't feel right."
Taking a lurching step forwards, Aiden felt his already-tense patience break at their imbecilic thoughts, and his face twisted into an angry scowl as he snarled at them.
"Well, if you're just gonna stand there and defend the ghast then you can by all means go with him! I've been working hard for all of us since we saved the world, while he's been gallivanting off with those other losers. He hasn't even been thinking about us! But, oh, if you're so ungrateful for what I've done for you, then leave!"
He finished his tirade with a huffing exhale, his lip curled at the pathetic wide eyes of his two friends. This was exactly why he had to look out for them and keep them safe from traitors like Lukas; they would be walked all over otherwise.
"Alright, dude, jeez," Maya responded, trying to calm herself down by running her hands through her hair, it seemed, "we get it, sorry."
"Didn't have to blow up on us like that…" Gill whined.
Aiden rolled his eyes, "I'm just looking out for us, guys."
"Yeah, alright…"
A tense silence fell. Aiden nodded to himself, proud that he had made them see his view. They couldn't be having anyone separate them, not when Lukas had already done so much damage…
He leaned against the seat he'd set up in their temporary house and flicked a speck of leaf from the arm that he must have brought in from the forest. As he did, he took a moment to inspect the skin that had previously been worn down by the Wither Sickness he had received from the mirror, on the back of his hand. When he'd first hauled himself from the remains of the Witherstorm, after the whole bomb thing (which he hadn't really been following), he'd been disgusted by the rotting purple welts that had blistered his skin in a large patch on his wrist. It had spread fast and painfully, leeching his strength and turning him pale. Maya had been affected in a similar way, though on her neck and shoulder, but Gill had ended up with some sort of amnesia, the damage clear in his eyes. It wasn't as bad, as they would later find out, as Gabriel's, but it had still been scary to watch him take a while to remember their names and even who he was. But they got there in the end, crouched in a quickly-built ramshackle hut as far away from the Witherstorm as they could crawl with nothing to eat but some meagre apples plucked from their one sheltering tree. Aiden recalled the terror he and the other Ocelots had felt whilst waiting there, shivering, weak, coughing, knowing that their time was coming up. Knowing that any second, as their wounds grew, that they could simply never wake up or starve or fall prey to mobs outside or- the worst- that horrible Witherstorm could come back. They certainly wouldn't make it out alive a second time.
But most of all, Aiden recalled the fear and concern that he had felt when all of them realised that Lukas had not escaped the withered prison with them.
He'd been missing before then, as well, separated from the group for some reason since before the conference with Gabriel the Warrior. He'd gone off to look around some stalls for himself, if Aiden was remembering correctly, so they'd thought nothing of it at the time. It was only in this hut that they really realised that he wasn't with them anymore, and the possibility that he may have met his demise out there. He could have been crushed by a tentacle or debris, he could have been sucked back up in the aftermath of the Witherstorm rising again, or even anything else could have happened in the panic and confusion. It was like missing a limb not knowing his fate, and they'd felt his absence like another Wither Sickness.
It made Aiden sick to recall this now.
When he'd shown up, riding on horseback with his hair slick from rain, looking like a right storybook hero, Aiden had felt a mixture of emotions. Much like the other Ocelots, he'd been glad to see him alive, and glad to be rescued from their slow, dark fate, but there had also been a hint of bitterness. He couldn't help but wonder where he'd been. What he'd been doing. Why he hadn't come to find them before.
Then, realising he'd been living up life with Jesse's stupid gang, meeting the Order of the Stone and saving the world without even a thought towards them, he'd felt angry. When Lukas had tried to defend himself, Aiden had only felt disgust for the pathetic human being in front of him. How very dare he try to accuse Aiden of delusion? How could he try and manipulate him into being sympathetic after all he'd done? It was- just- disgusting.
Snapping back to the present at a knock on the door, Aiden noticed for the first time that he'd been gripping the arm of the chair tightly in his anger. He'd even worked grooves into it with his fingernails. Huffing slightly out his nose, he relaxed his grip. He needed to stay professional now that he was the leader of Beacontown.
That's right; he was the leader of Beacontown. Their hero in residence, if you would. Not any of those other pathetic losers. He had been the one to succeed in slaying the Witherstorm. They were just accessories. They didn't deserve that role at all.
Gill and Maya appeared to have shuffled off somewhere in silence. In their place, stood a smallish man with blond hair that had been making himself comfy as Aiden's secretary or assistant of sorts in the days prior. He'd said his name, but Aiden hadn't made much note to remember it, so he just sort of waved his hand to allow the man to enter.
"Ah, Mister Aiden!" he chirped in a headache-inducing high-pitched voice that Aiden tried not to cringe at, "There's, um, a woman here to see you. She says it's about business."
Confused, Aiden glanced out the window. It was nearly evening; not the greatest of times to talk business. Still, he shrugged his shoulders and sat up. He guessed he could talk business with a fan, whether it turned out to be useful or not.
"Let her in," he ordered, brushing down his trousers.
"Right away, sir!"
Moments later, Aiden was met by a woman with straight blonde hair who presented herself quite regally, though at the moment that was trumped by her apparent elation, and the much more forgettable black-haired man behind her. The second her eyes fell upon him, they lit up, and she dipped into a low, dramatic bow to hide her excitement. Immediately, Aiden felt a smirk perk up his cheeks. Whatever this was, he could work with it.
"Ah, Mr. Aiden," she greeted, still bowed to the ground, "it is the greatest honour of mine to meet you. I am eternally grateful for the feat you have accomplished, and for saving us all."
"Please," he replied with a charismatic chuckle, "please, there is no need for such politeness. Look me in the eye and tell me your name."
She obliged eagerly, holding out a hand, "I'm Stella. It's a pleasure to meet you."
"Stella," he replied thoughtfully, shaking her hand, "what a lovely name. How can I be of service to you today?"
"Ah, well," the woman took a moment to compose herself before settling back into her air of regality, "I have a business proposal that I do believe could only be accomplished by the likes of you."
"Oh? Do tell."
Taking a deep breath, Stella began, "For years, I have had a vision; a vision that shows me a magnificent city built up and maintained by heroes. A city of champions, if you will. This is where people who have done incredible deeds come to both reside and preside over residents who will come to help maintain this brilliant place and learn from the best of the best. They will live in harmony with heroes, sharing their treasures and tales, gaining advice and setting out on journeys of their own under the name of said heroes. It would be like a collaborative effort to make the greatest name and legacy of people like you. Imagine Gildcross in its prime, but all centred around one group of heroes."
Intrigued, Aiden tilted his head, turning the idea over in his head and considering it thoughtfully, "I like where your head's at…do you propose we work on that here?"
She nodded quickly, "Oh yes, where else is better to work than Beacontown? The place where the Witherstorm was slain?"
"I suppose you are right…go on then, what are the specifics? What are you proposing exactly?"
Pleased, Stella ploughed on with her explanation, this time going into great detail, "First of all, we stick to one building code, one particular aesthetic, that you could decide to fit your image best. All the residents can then build as such, which would speed up the rebuilding of this place as now everyone knows what they want their house to look like. It also promotes unity. Next, you build a Treasure Room where everything you have won and everything that the residents and others you commission will bring back from their adventures. That is where the main collaboration stems from. All these treasures, won by your people, in your name for advice and adventures you have given them. That way, your legacy will be forever cemented by that which you have won and those you have taught."
By the end of her spiel, Stella's eyes were sparkling and she almost seemed breathless with the excitement that her idea was finally being listened to. By now, Aiden was far more than interested. What a…fantastic idea. A city entirely encircled by his legacy and deeds…people who would look up to him…treasure hunted entirely for him…
He held out his hand, and the second Stella took it, he lurched her towards him and shook it eagerly.
"A fantastic idea," he exclaimed, his eyes gleaming, "how lucky I am that you came to me first."
Stella blushed, flustered from his urgent affirmation, but excited nonetheless.
"You have a deal, my friend," he confirmed, smiling triumphantly, "and I just know we are going to do great things together."
