The Beginning of the End of the Middle Ground

The last known written Chronicle in the old Ninjas and Pirates before its demise. May the good times last forever.

The Beginning of the End of the Middle Ground « on: August 25, 2011, 09:39:04 AM » Red Jenny stood on the shores, looking out to a slowly darkening sea, the last sun she would see setting into the now golden shining waves. Her eyes watched the sun move behind the clouds, ignoring the numerous bodies laying in the surf, pirate and ninja alike, old and young... blood ran in small crimson rivers to mingle in the surf, the blue water mixing with red to form a rust-like texture. The pirate sighed.

"I was afraid it would come to this... one final battle when everything is blown to smithereens, and for what? Because some people couldn't stop their razing, hatred, blasting and carnage..."

She smiled, ruefully, thinking of the fighters, friend and enemy, that she had known. Their strength, vapidness, swiftness, courage, speed and skill... each one fighting, killing, dying for a cause that had been their own. The pirate barely remembered their names, but knew their spirits. Knew that most of them were asking; why?

Why had she demolished their work, their plans? What about their sovereignty, their rules? Didn't she cheat at her work, undoing their hard earned plans with a single scheme?

It gave her reason to laugh. 'You cheated', she mouthed the words. "Pirate," Jenny said aloud, reminding any listening spirits of that simple maxim.

But now, the land behind her was burning. The dead lay all around her. Would someone come and put her out of this world, or was she to do it herself?

She withdrew a pistol, arming it with two musketballs; the first would be for the fight, if there was one. If there wasn't a fight, then no bullets would be needed. Drawing her cutlass at a sound behind her, she waited.

"Is there no one left to fight me, ninja or pirate? Am I to just fade away or burn out? Or am I to go in a blaze of glory?!" Jenny snarled, turning to face whomever was there.

As far as Invadra could see, the world burned. The ash-choked sand parted beneath his sootstained boots as the ninja strolled through the devastation, as though without a care in the world. Fire choked the horizon as lovingly-wrought structures were consumed, painting the water a flickering orange. The same light danced in Invadra's emerald eyes as he glanced from sight to bloody sight, his hand gripping the pommel of the mortuary sword at his belt. Every now and then a familiar face would gaze vacantly up at him, friend and foe, even their eternal rivalries swept away by the shuddering march of mortality.

"And so, stalemate returns...albeit, in a different form." The words were a struggle to say, and led him into a hacking cough as the smoke dried his throat out. With an annoyed grimace he continued his wanderings, the steel frame giving his leather armour that little extra integrity blackened by the soot which hung in the air.

"And the sun sets over a dying world...how refreshing, but I have no intention of joining the dead this day." At least, he spotted a living form amongst the charnel, an all too familiar form too. His grip on the blade tightened a fraction, as he surveyed Jenny. "I intend to live as long as I can. And nothing shall prevent me from doing so." His voice raised a little at that, and he gazed at Jenny meaningfully. "Has there not been enough death? Probably not, it's never enough for some absurd reason." His tone was urbane, for all the world he could have been chatting to the pirate about the weather, but his eyes were narrowed and his body tense, ready for whatever came next. His blade was unsheathed about an inch, poised to draw.

"Well?"

Jenny turned at hearing that familiar voice, hand still gripping the cutlass, the pistol now shoved into her belt. She listened, silent as he spoke, watching her foe like a hawk.

"Well?"

The pirate stared, mute for a few tense moments... then a smile appeared, showing teeth stained red- her own blood. She laughed, low at first, then louder, until she was shaking with mirth, the laughter ringing like a carrion bell. It was the laughter of someone who had been to the brink of death, poised on the cliff's edge, and then suddenly halted by a hand gripping their shirt. Jenny sighed, but her eyes showed a calmness not present before, and the smile she wore was crooked, tinged with mockery, yet glad.

"I'm glad to see you lived through this day, matey... I may yet be all but destroyed soon enough. And if it's by your hands, I'll consider it a good thing. Mayhaps not precisely an honor, but hey," She swung the sword in her hand loosely, holding the grip as she chuckled. "I am still a pirate, and you are still a ninja."

Her shoulders relaxed slightly. "And as for enough death..."

In a flash, the cutlass swung out, aiming between the ninja's right arm and hip, slashing quickly as she jumped away, landing onto the smoking remains of what was a ship's deck, eyes shining with the thrill of a oncoming fight.

"Death doesn't end the fight, matey. It just begins another battle." Invadra had been waiting for that blow to come, of course. He shifted to the right, pulling the basket-hilted blade out of its sheath and turning the blow aside with his own. The weapons clashed, the dull ring of steel on steel echoed throughout the blasted landscape as the impact sent a bouquet of sparks trailing longingly after the pirate's cutlass. His teeth clenched with the force of the impact, and he followed Jenny's retreating form intently. Holding the longsword up so that the blade was parallel to himself, the black-swathed figure strode towards the ruined vessel.

"I shall take your word for it." Breaking into a run, he leapt onto the broken deck and leveled the sword at Jenny's face, ready, always on the defensive, waiting for the blows to come. Though his demeanor was unchanged, his eyes sparkled with a definite excitement for the coming combat. He began to smile beneath his face-scarf.

"For I fully intend to live forever. En garde."



Quote 'The pirate's eyes met with those of the ninja... and there was a rivaled kinship between the two. For though each had enmity for the other, both would feel the rush and drive of the battle, bloodshed was their companion and murder walked by their sides. They would be the deadliest of enemies, the greatest of foes... yet their respect for the other bastard would always be so.'

- Thomas Whittaker, A History of Pirates and Ninjas



Jenny grinned wildly, but the sudden cutlass stab was focused as she stabbed, moving with the blade and dodging the swing she knew would come. She slashed up, then down, aiming at shoulders, neck, torso... a blazingly fast conflict, but familiar in that endless circle of death. Of course Invadra would be dodging, finding a few openings to leave his own marks... like lightning her clothing became slashed, each rip in the fabric followed by a thin line of crimson on skin. She coughed on the smoke, spitting blood from her mouth as she swung aside a seeking thrust.

"It's always good to have goals, matey. Living forever, though? That sounds kind of lonely."

Her blade connected with his, and she stood for a second, looking up at him.

"Unless it's that existential kind of thing, living through legends and what not."

Invadra looked up when the blades clashed, putting just enough weight into the jam to keep it steady. He raised an eyebrow, shifting his weight to bear down upon her more, trying to catch his breath. It had been a while since a fight this satisfying had come up, and he fully intended to enjoy it to the last.

"Either or, I take what I can get. However, from your own...demeanor I have to question what your own plans for the future are." He kept up the conversational tone, if only just, his eyes narrow in concentration, his body rigid with tension.

"What does your life hold for you, should you brave this hell?" With that he broke the clash, leaping up to a higher point of the shattered vessel and eyeing her curiously. "Do you have a goal, or do we merely fight because bloodshed has impregnated us? I find myself wondering such these days, however." He then leapt, holding his red-tinted sword firm in his left hand, striking as he hit the deck then leaping above, onto the tattered rigging. He was a ninja, after all.

Jenny's own eyebrows rose at the ninja's observation. She couldn't help but listen, even as she was pushed back by Invadra and watching as he jumped and then jumped again, waiting until the last second to dodge his blade as it shattered the burnt deck timbers, sending a shower of splinters toward her. Dodging behind the broken remains of a barrel, Jenny felt the impact of the splinters into the wooden panels protecting her. She stood, eyes darting, until she spotted the ninja standing on what was left of the mainmast.

"Most of my friends are dead or gone," Jenny said, squinting up into the fading evening sky. "I... I don't know what my life holds if I were to survive. Dealing with young wet-behind-the-ears scallywags makes me feel old, though if I don't, no one else will."

She twirled the blade in her right hand again, moving her head to ease the crick in her neck. "As for my goal... perhaps I've lost my way. And by the stars, you're not the only one wondering why we fight."

With a swift movement of her left arm, she slung a clay pot up to smash on the timbers that the ninja stood against, releasing a mixture of gunpowder, buckshot and peppermint- a strong smell that one could track even in darkness if needs be. Yes, it was cheating... but she was a pirate.

Invadra snarled as the pot cracked, covering him with the pungeant mixture. He lurched back as far as he could while keeping his balance and broke into a small fit of coughing, still eyeing Jenny intently. Pulling spritely up the mast he stood far above her, gazing down as though some kind of dark-clad angel of judgement, pointing the blade at her as he carefully reached into his belt.

"And even with this acknowledgement we continue to fight, as though the contract of violence is etched into our very flesh, as though our souls cry out in single-minded fury, as though bloody-handed conflict is the only recourse in a sickly world going slowly mad." Retrieving the slim form of a throwing knife, Invadra traced something upon the flat of the metal before hurling the blade towards his target. A few moments after it leaves his leather-encased hand it burst into flames, rapidly heating until it lost form. So what was arcing towards Jenny was not a blade, but a spurt of superheated metal. He watched the pirate closely, ready to strike when she moved.

Jenny wasn't the most intelligent of pirates, she would be the first to admit this. But her hackles rose at the calmness in the ninja's voice, and the eloquent language. Her reply was laced with the tired, jaded sarcasm of rebellion.

"So you think if we drop our weapons and 'talk things out', if one fight between two people ends... then everything else falls into place? Peace reigns over all, innocents can walk the streets without fear, free rum and sake for all? That kind of idealism is nice to dream about and work for, but with everyone having their own ideals and goals, things fall apart faster than this burning wreck of a ship-"

She flung herself back, away from the sudden quicksilver death streaming toward her. While it hit the deck and instantly burned it's way through the boards, some of it splashed onto her left leg, hitting bare skin.

"Bloody hellfire!" She swore, rolling away from the gaping hole that had been where she previously stood. Smoke rose from the wounds on her leg, the sizzle of burning flesh in her ears and the stench rising to her nose. She stood, awkwardly, shouting up to Invadra.

"Maybe it is something to work for, and maybe I won't see it in my lifetime, if ninja and pirate were to cooperate and perhaps find peace would be better for us all. But even against a common enemy like the State we fell apart, the feud forgotten in the midst of all the whacked-out things happening. And the State only confused things even more! Can you rebuild something even if it has been broken and fractured into a million pieces?"

She waited, more to hear his answer than for his attack.

Invadra frowned, shaking his head and gazing into the tainted sea beyond. Leaning against the mast, lost in the conversational stance so common to him, he rubbed his eyes as he spoke.

"Don't be silly. I am not preaching peace, simply commenting on the absurdity of the conflict. It is ridiculous, is it not? However, peace is an even greater puppet show, a theatrical pageantry where we posture and balance upon each other to maintain the status quo, until one side grows weary of the strain and lapses into conflict once again." He inhaled deeply, breathing in the scent of burnt flesh as he returned his eyes to her.

"Ridiculous puppetry, a pantomime more than a war, any ideologic significance throttled as we dance like gristly marrionettes to the tune of war." As soon as the last word left his lips Invadra dived, his blade gripped in two hands as he went for a swift decapitating strike along the pirate's right shoulder. His body was ready to rebound once he hit the deck, in case of a riposte. He was nothing, if not careful. "And yet with all this philosophical and scathing comments, we still fight... Aye, ridiculous would be a word to describe it. Personally, I'd use the word 'necessary'. We both trade in the same business, with different tactics and ideas, but in the end our targets die, for the most part."

Jenny saw the blur and the shadow, and instinctively stepped back, feeling the rush of air from the ninja's blade rush past her shoulders and neck. Rather than riposte, it was Jenny's turned to jump, this time onto a stairway bannister, one of the few bits of timber upright on the broken deck.

"You speak as if we are manipulated into our chosen roles, and mayhaps that's true from an outsider's view," the pirate says. "What's the alternative, eh? Peace, war or death? A bleak list of options if there were any, matey." She shook her head.

"We've manipulated ourselves." Invadra turned and looked up at Jenny, his brow furrowed as he brought his weapon to bear. His dark armour was criss-crossed with flashes of red, telltale signs of his foe's skill, but all superficial. No telling blow had been landed at all, the fact lodged itself in Invadra's mind like a frigid metal spike, causing him to grit his teeth and plant his feet in the ground.

"We're a funny lot, our kinds." He continued, his conversational act fading to a more serious tone. "We're killers, thiefs, we evade those who would hunt us and eliminate those who get in our way. I'm sure hell itself has a place just for us. Death is in our blood, and we hear its call all too readily. Others despise us as bringers of chaos and war, we mock them as weaklings."

In a heartbeat he was on the move, darting towards Jenny's position, blade scratching at the deck.

"And mankind always hates what it most closely resembles." Rather than leaping to meet her, Invadra threw himself down. His form curled as he dropped into a roll, and his blade swung out out. With a crunch which reached the heavens the longsword cleaved through the damp timber, sending the wood toppling down.

"What else do we have, after all?"



Despite feeling close to death's door, Jenny found herself smiling gently, like a friend with a sad secret.

"Oddly enough, matey... I don't hate ninjas anymore." She relaxed as the timber beneath her feet shattered, falling back onto the deck, rolling against the splintered wood until she was crouched, leaning against a fallen mast, one arm around the massive beam.

"Mankind hates what it hates, though others claim to control and channel that hatred. I can only speak for meself... and I can't find myself hating you, personally. Dunno if I ever did, though I did swear and curse during the times we stood against each other in battle. Heh, mostly because all the good ninjas, the trained and skilled ones... aye, those were the best times of fighting."

"And what do you mean, 'What else do we have?' I did forget to mention 'life', didn't I?"

Quickly she stood, stepping to the side to approach and swing toward Invadra's middle, aiming for the ribs again.

Invadra snarled as the blade bit into his torso, the armour only just holding Jenny's cutlass from dealing a mortal blow to him. He staggered for a second, his vision blurring with pain, before leaping back.

I'm so slow...It's been a while since I was in my prime. I've been out of it too long. Pulling himself back together and pointing his blade once more at his foe's face.

"This is life? Don't make me laugh." He gestured around at the carnage they fought in, the blood staining the water, the old friends and foes still in the sand, floating in the water. "This isn't life, this is sickness." Crouching, he began to inscribe some kind of sigil upon the deck with a green flame. Where he touched he left a mark, until burnt into the vessel was an intricate symbol. He closed his eyes, his free hand grasping in front of him as he focused power into the runic magic under his command.

"Greater rune of reconstruction, lift." He stated, and the rune began to glow with the same green colour. For a moment the air was still, then with a creaking which could have woken the gods the ruined ship pulled itself upwards. Mighty spiked timbers moved through the air of their own accord to push again into holes in the masts, crowds of deadly splinters whistled through the air, returning to their past place. The ship began to float once more, drifting away from this scene.

"There won't be life until one faction dies utterly or both sides yield!" Invadra spat, sprinting through the mayhem of the reconstruction and stabbing at Jenny's midriff. His body was near-rigid with tension, and his eyes were practically burning with a new passion.

"Sickness... I suppose that's one way of putting it."

Jenny watched as Invadra used his powers to reassemble the ship, impressed at how it was returned to it's more intact form; her eyes were drawn to a flag floating through the air, being attached again to the top of the crow's nest. She didn't move when Invadra shouted. She didn't move when he charged forward.

At the last possible second, opening her eyes, she stepped into the ninja's blade, not meeting any resistance as it ran her through. A trickle of blood ran down her mouth, her chin, a long crimson line trailing down her neck into her tattered and stained shirt. Jenny's smile, at first calm, was now fixed as pain shot through her entire body like an explosion. Her eyes met Invadra's, dead on and unwavering.

"You know damn well... that this battle won't die with me, or you. Yielding... isn't something a pirate... or a ninja... can do. And don't you... bloody even mention... parley..."

Another wave of pain ran through her body, as she raised a hand to Invadra's arm, clasping the arm wielding the sword. Her knees were shaking, beckoning her to fall down, but she refused to give into the pain.

Invadra's eyes widened as his blade slid into Jenny's stomach. For a moment, all he could do was stare, his mind overwhelmed by the impossibility of this absurd situation. Of all the predictions in his mind for her reaction to his attack, he wouldn't have dreamt of this. His hands gripped his blade far harder than he needed to, his body trying to perform the habitual withdrawal, but he held it back for fear of killing her there and then.

"...Why?" He looked at her blankly. The move seemed to have completely unnerved him, and a thin mat of blood stained his face-scarf from where he had almost bitten through his lip. "Why did you do that? There was no need. You...what..." Confusion and a slow swell of panic stained his eyes as he looked at the injury, then back to Jenny's face.

"You're...no." He shook his head and calmed his racing mind. "I don't want you to die." It sounded almost childlike, a plaintive call from something living beyond the blackened heart of a centuries-old hardened killer, and Invadra almost rolled his eyes at his own statement. "Damn you, don't die when I do this. I'm going to help you recover." With a wince he pulled the blade out, his hand going to her shoulder to steady her if she fell. "Don't you dare die."

The day was done; the battle was done. Rusty was done. The madness faded from his vision. Alone, he traveled through a dark world. Death's House was full tonight, the newly welcomed guests filling every corner of His Abode. Waiting in queue, the Dead traveled to their next lives. For their sakes, Rusty hoped it would be a more forgiving life than this.

Perhaps Rusty had never been mad at all? It all seemed as a dream. From the day he had set foot in pirate lands, challenged his first ninja to mortal combat, that ultimate test of skill. Crazy, he had been then. Yes, Rusty supposed he had been mad once, a long time ago.

He traveled, and the dead traveled with him. He knew not where he traveled to. Perhaps he was dead as well? Rusty grunted resignedly. No, that would be too good a fate for him. He would be one of those to live on, he knew. Immortality had been thrust upon him. It was to be his curse. "Old Ones, why do Thou yet preserve Thy Iron Prophet?" Rusty called out. Did he expect an answer?

"I grow weary of life," Rusty confided to the corpse next to him. It stared back at him, ever attentive. Mangled so, it was impossible to tell if the corpse belonged to pirate a ninja. Perhaps neither; there was no telling who else had felt the persuasion of Death this day. "Before I go whence I shall not return, even to the land of darkness and the shadow of death; A land of darkness, as darkness itself; and of the shadow of death, without any order, and where the blight is as darkness."

Old friends, smiles on their familiar faces, rose, discarding their former bodies and walking forth to the mists. Rusty yearned to join them. He scanned their expressions, willing them to turn and acknowledge him as they passed; even to welcome him to join them as they journeyed to their next destination. If they had done so, Rusty would have accepted and joined them right then, so close they seemed. But none did. The spirits moved on.

"Iron Prophet, We have set forth thy errand since the time of thy calling." The Old Ones spoke to Rusty from across the ages. Before him, Rusty's stern masters stood in his path.

"But the Chosen Peoples are gone; no longer are there Pirates and Ninjas to add to the Record," Rusty testified to the Visages. "I have completed that which was set out for me."

"Nay, Thou hast not understood thy true calling; The Chosen Peoples have no label as Pirates or Ninjas."

This revelation struck Rusty, and he collapsed to his knees. Weakly, he raised his head, and saw that the Old Ones were no longer there. Perhaps it had merely been his subconsciousness projecting itself into his thoughts. He struggled to his feet, wrestling with this idea. Onward he marched, still with no thought of where he headed. Only away. Inside, forces contended against one another for his future.

His steady advance brought him to the wreckages of one thousand mighty vessels. Rusty swept his gaze across smashed hulls, splintered masts, limp rigging. One of the vessels caught his eye, protruding from the timber sea with its fully intact mast. Quizzical, Rusty moved toward it. On its deck he sighted two remaining souls. In a few last great bounds, he covered the rest of they area to the ship's side and pulled himself over the side. Before him stood two figures he'd never thought to see again.



Jenny blinked rapidly, mouth open in a silent scream when Invadra pulled the blade from her guts; bile rose to her throat, the hand holding her cutlass shaking as she swayed in place. Even so, a strangled sound, at first slow, then building... it sounded like she was choking, but then she tilted her head back, a tight grin on her lips.

'He stabbed me... and he doesn't want me to die...' Jenny realized through the pain and shock that she was somewhat giddy over the situation. 'Wow... talk about ironic.'

"I'll... try not to... immediately..." She choked out, feeling light-headed as she crumpled to the deck onto her haunches, her hands going to the wound in front of her body. Her body was stabbed with pain, and she twisted, turning her head toward the deck rail. The figure that appeared out of the sky must have been a hallucination... but she smiled, nonetheless.

"Rusty... is that you? My, my, it's been a while, matey... Thought you were dead..."

Invadra wasted no time in steadying Jenny, gritting his teeth until it hurt as he appraised the injury. The charnel smell already saturating the area had intensified with Jenny's latest wound, and the ninja could swear he had about half a pint of her blood soaking his front.

"This may hurt a little, but since you've been run through I suspect you're already hurting a little." He said in an off-hand fashion, green fire materialising at his fingertips. "Damn fool, why didn't you dodge..." Without another moment he pressed the flame into her back, starting to draw an intricate device similar to that now burnt onto the ship. "Just live." He didn't give Rusty the time of day, in fact he barely noticed the presence of the man somewhere to his left. The world would just have to wait while he attended to his new patient.

Darkened seas and bloody shores, and screaming. Was the dragon sleeping, or was it awake? Noises, talking? Carryd seemed to be stuck. Not in the traditional sense, either. She was stuck inbetween two realities, and she wasn't sure how she'd gotten there. It reeked distinctly of betrayal by someone she'd trusted implicitly, but she couldn't fathom that right now. A voice echoed in her head.

"You don't belong in that world anymore. You are mine." It sounded smug. The half-dragon had never liked smug. Smug people got their faces beaten in until they were no longer in possession of a face.

"I do too belong. I always have." She said, with defiance. The confusing nothingness about her was frightening...but she'd been here before. She began searching for something...the little tear in this reality that would let her slip back to her own.

"But you are a dragon...what are you doing?" Carryd slipped a hand through the crack, widening it, slipping through agonisingly slowly, slithering and sliding. The next sensation she experienced was falling from a great hight, and plowing into wet sand with a sickening noise. The Annoying smug voice screamed after her. The little half dragon smiled through a faceful of dirt, and yelled back in draconic.

"Screw you guys! I went home!"
 * Back from the dead to bring back this thread.*



Jenny turned her head back, suddenly reaching to grasp Invadra's hand with a surprising iron grip- that would have been due to the replacement left arm she gained after a regrettable mishap. Her eyes were fixed on the ninja as she spoke.

"Matey... all you do is delay the inevitable. If I live, then I live... but right now, I'd be more focused as to why the hell we're on a boat floating through the skies..." Here she grinned. "And why in the seven sea's name would you get so damnably close to an enemy."

The last words were spoken with an almost joking lilt; the smile, bloody and friendly at the same time, was as sharp as the stiletto that sliced into Invadra's free arm.

The blade was little, the wound miniscule. But the poison on it that would be trickling through his veins... that was something that the ninja should detect and possibly derail, or she had overestimated his skills.

The pirate slowly rose, stumbling toward the now finished railing... she slipped at one point, in the pool of her own blood on the deck. But she quickly regained her balance, walking to the railing, gingerly lifting one leg over, then the other, hanging onto the rail with her hands as she turned, grinning that familiar, tired smile.

"You can go on to your other adventures, mateys. I'm gonna see what the vastness has to offer me. Oh, and if'n you see the self-titled Emperor Derek... tell him to suck on the nearest cannonball that gets blasted through his blubber-filled skull. Take what you can, mateys... and give it your all!"

With that, Jenny jumped off the railing and into the open sky, falling into nothingness... there was a flash of bright light, a silver star of intensity that was born, and then just as suddenly, died. There was no sign of a body, or a splash from the ocean below.

I make this look good.*
 * You want to know the difference between you and me?



Rusty ignored Invadra. "Yeah, it's me, Jenny. No, unfortunately I'm not dead. You seem to be close, though, what happened?"

The vessel was in motion now; it had lifted off from the blood-stained sand and was gently gliding in the direction of the ocean. In the back of his mind, he heard the toll of a bell... Ring...

"Matey... all you do is delay the inevitable." said Jenny, coughing. Ring... Ring...

"If I live, then I live..." Ring...

"But right now, I'd be more focused as to why the hell we're on a boat floating through the skies..." Ring... Ring...

"And why in the seven sea's name would you get so damnably close to an enemy." Ring... Ring... Jenny pulled out a stiletto and slashed at Invadra. For the first time, Rusty realized that the two may have been fighting before he arrived.

"You can go on to your other adventures, mateys. I'm gonna see what the vastness has to offer me." Ring... Ring... Jenny had stumbled to the side of the ship, and was climbling onto the railing. What was she doing?

"Oh, and if'n you see the self-titled Emperor Derek... tell him to suck on the nearest cannonball that gets blasted through his blubber-filled skull." Ring... Ring... Jenny's expression seemed both jovial and serene. A drop of blood fell from her lip to splatter on the railing.

"Take what you can, mateys... and give it your all!"

Ring...

With the thirteenth stroke of the bell, Rusty saw Jenny leap over the railing into the void. "Jenny, wait!" Rusty called, alarmed. He ran to the side of the ship, nearly slipping in the pools of blood covering the deck. But when he reached the side and looked over, there was nothing to be seen. No body, no splash in the water. The ship was over an ocean now, the battlefield long gone. The ship had been traveling very fast... or perhaps it was just traveling somewhere else, to a place not entirely within the broken world of NaP.

Rusty slumped against the railing, and hung his head. A part of him was happy for Jenny, happy that she could move on to a better life... the other part was sad to see her go, sad to be left alone.

"The vastness, huh... Jenny, I hope it treats you well..." he whispered.


 * Classic Cool*