Chapter 2: What Lies Beneath

[stardust]

Stardust drew Ciceronian right after Rayden's great spider dissipated. It actually just did half of their problems away. What caught her off guard was when Blaze blurted something that Stardust had no idea she knew. Waverly was Reese's...girlfriend? How come, all of a sudden, everything started to sound so unbelievable? The furious look pasted on her face became much fiercer as she watched Waverly point the gun to her, incessantly babbling on and on. Stardust was beginning to understand now--the reason why Reese acted like he did, and the words he used to tell her the last time she saw him smile. They were sitting ducks back then at FH. Reese saved their lives when he left that night. She never doubted that there was good in him, just like he did with her. And now, thanks to this woman, he would never know how much his sacrifice was worth. This woman just took everything from him--everything.

Her fist clenched tightly. She'll pay for this.

Stardust lifted her eyes to rest on Polaris back when she stepped in front of her, her forehead creased. She must have noticed how much vulnerability the pinkhead was showing.

[vanesse]

Vanesse let out a short gasp when she saw what Deo was talking about. "How come the entrance only open for a short period of time?!" she firmly whispered.

/Ask the Shumi Elder./

Stop joking, Paridge.

/Hoho, I'm not./ Vanesse grunted at Paridge. He could be annoying sometimes. Anyway, if there was a good time to sneak inside, it would be now. Everyone in front of the gate, including the SeeDs, was too wrapped up in their heated encounter. What better chance to tiptoe inside!

"Fine, let's take this opportunity." Van agreed, crouching further into the bushes. "I'll go first."


Opps

Unbeknownst to the people outside the gate, the three Opps member fluidly sneaked inside without a trace. Hopping down the trapdoor, they found themselves in another lush garden that was separated with 10-feet walls covered with untrimmed vines. The place was dim with nothing but untamed fireflies, lots of them, to lit the area. There was a very good description for this place, and it was called a "labyrinth."

[ST]

SeeDs (One of those nasty, evil ST posts x.x)

The unfortunate DotNA soldiers that were left barely held their grounds after Rayden's powerful summon. "Get a grip, you fools!!" Mitch shouted at them.

Waverly, on the other hand, looked totally provoked, growing red in both frustration and haughtiness. She didn't budge when she aimed her gun towards Polaris and Stardust. Just then, she felt another click of a gun pointed towards her, and her face turned grim.

"Shoot my sister and I'm putting one between your eyes, Waverly. I don't care if Mitch shoots me after, but pull that trigger and your lipstick won't be the only thing smeared all over your face." There was danger in Reaver's tone.

"Interesting..." Waverly said after a silent pause. "Funny how family spins you on a 180....I thought you knew the rules much better than that, Reaver, I really do. But then again, look at Reese."

Four consecutive gunshots screamed in the air, and just then, the so-called Xu's secretary moved in front of Waverly, his smoking gun pointed at Reaver. One bullet went straight to the hand holding Reaver's gun, and the others went to Reaver's gut and legs.


"W-Waverly!" Mitch blurted out, surprised.

"What is it, Mitch? You're going to betray DotNA too?" Waverly asked briefly. "You know I don't answer lightly to betrayals."

Mitch wanted to say more but kept his mouth shut. He'd seen and did dozens of scenarios like this, but still. "Hyne..." he said, looking at Reaver. He was knocked down, but still breathing. He knew the rules for DotNA, but this was just insane. Reaver was one of the best fighters, or he wouldn't make it to their level. Is it really necessary to take him out? he thought to himself.

"Touching, isn't it?" Waverly turned to the SeeDs, mainly to Polaris. "Don't worry, you can go to lala land together!" She pulled the trigger.

"Watch out!" Stardust pushed Polaris out of the way and ducked at the thunderous sounds of gunshots that ensued after that. They were rained with bullets.

The poor Shumi elder was still at the scene and was glued to his spot behind a small rock. His flabby physique may had been a little too difficult for the small rock to cover all of him. It would just be a matter of time till a lone bullet reaches him.


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Run around XD It's going dooooowwwnnn! Oh, and Reaver's not about to die! >.< Don't worry, just a turn of events. He didn't get shot for nothing >|

[waterlily43]

Jun occupied herself with attacking the remaining Dotna soldiers who had narrowly escaped an attack from Rayden's spider GF, although the nosy parker in her was straining to burst out, chattering incessantly about Polaris and that Dotna leader called Reaver. But putting herself in Polaris' shoes she knew the other SeeD would not relish being questioned at all, especially since she had gone to the extent of changing her name. It was all a guess of course but Jun thought she couldn't be that far from the truth. Besides, she had to get her priorities straightened and right now, it was to get rid of all these Dotna pests.

But a nagging thought was clinging at her. That Waverly bitch--a term that Jun had already stuck on her since the first time the irksome woman had opened her mouth--had mentioned something about Reese being an Ex-Dotna. If she had to pick anyone as the mole she wouldn't pick Reese, hell she would pick herself over him. Cos if it wasn't for him, they wouldn't have possession of the Emerald at all. Unconsciously, Jun's gaze drifted over to Stardust.

She could see that the pinkhead was on the verge of bursting. Jun had half a mind to venture near Stardust so that she wouldn't do anything foolish, but it seemed that the moment was over when Polaris stepped in front. Jun's mouth curved a little appreciatively.

Looks like there's someone else with a calm head in this team, Hyne bless us.

Just then, a faint whimpering caught her attention, amidst the smoking gunfire and whizzing of bullets zipping through the air. Jun looked around for the source, and saw the defenseless Shumi Elder cowering behind a rock that was much too small for protective purposes. Swiftly, she made her way over to him.

"Mr. Shumi Elder, it is not safe to stay here. I'll bring you over to better grounds." Jun said kindly to him, while shielding him with her body lest any stray bullet should fly their way. She felt guilty that the elder had been so dangerously close to their fight with Dotna and if he so much as suffered a little wound because he chose to help the SeeDs, Jun wasn't sure the Shumis would trust them again.

Jun lead the Elder towards the other side of the pond stealthily, where taller trees, shrubs and rocks permeated the area, offering a much larger shield against the Dotna bullets.

"Just stay here for the time being, okay? I know you would want to return to your hut, Sir, but we can't risk one of those crazies turning their gun on you so..."

"Don't worry about me, dear." The Shumi Elder patted her hand in reassurance. "Worry about that. The pond is starting to fill up again, you must hasten to open the trapdoor before it is obscured by the water. There is no second chance for this."

Jun whipped her head towards the pond. Sure enough, water was trickling back into the pond through the opened slabs, which had started lowering back into their holes.

"I have to warn the rest!" She exclaimed, dashing back into the grounds where the battles were still going on like nobody's business.


"You guys!" She started loudly, before reducing her voice so that only Gone, Hadrian and Blaze could hear her. The rest were too close to the Dotna leaders; she didn't want the enemies being alerted to the filling pond too. "Psst, the entrance is closing soon, we have to hurry! Finish off these scum and alert those in front, but don't let the Dotna know. Got it?"

[Blaze Sanaku]

Xu's secretary seemed to trigger an all out war between the dotNA and the seeDs. As soon as his bullet had been fired, Blaze darted into the action and unmercifully killed the backup dotNA that had not been rendered useless by Rayden's GF.

Blaze's claws tore through the bodies of the soldiers with ease. She noticed that she was being pushed back farther and farther from the entrance to the garden but that didn't seem to bother her. She was too preoccupied with her slaughter. A haughty soldier came too close to Blaze and she grabbed his arm and slammed her foot into his chest, dislocating his shoulder with a sickening crunch.

"Psst, the entrance is closing soon, we have to hurry! Finish off these scum and alert those in front, but don't let the Dotna know. Got it?" Jun hissed from the trees. Blaze saw that Jun was right, the pond was filling up fast. She looked back towards Jun.

---

okayy this probably needs to be edited but I don't know what's going on with Trav's team now >_<

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EDITED! This is Ani >.< It's all cool! We're just waiting for Trav's team to show up, maybe we'll pause it for now till Braze comes back.

[Bun]

I understand we're pausing for Braze; I'm just adding to the madness a bit. I won't progress the story.

---

Polaris felt Stardust's hands at her back, shoving her forward. Just in time, too; Waverly was shooting randomly, her face screwed up in anger, and Polaris saw a figure in black and white fall to the ground, his immaculate suit spattered with blood.

"Reaver!" she screamed. "REAV--!"

And then someone grabbed her around the waist, and she twisted around to find a grim-looking Sho Miyavi looking down at her. He hauled her to her feet; miraculously, they weren't getting shot to death, but Waverly was trying her damnedest. The mole was shooting, too, smirking.

And then Polaris turned into Blaze yet again.

"You!" she spat, slipping from Sho's arms and dropping into a low crouch, her hand groping along the bank. She touched something hard and jagged, and looked down.

<Perfect.>

She grabbed the nearby rock and wound back, and with a speed and accuracy that would've made the pitcher of the Dolletian Red Dragons--her favorite baseball team--weep with pride, Polaris threw the rock with the force of a bullet.

Straight at Xu's secretary's nose.

CRACK!

Polaris almost shouted in triump when someone hauled her off her feet and backwards, towards a grove of trees, but she wasn't ready to go yet.

"I'm going to kill him!" she snarled, twisting away from the stranger's grip. "I don't need my fucking axe, I'll kill him with my bare hands--"

"--stop it!--"

"--I'm the only one allowed to fuck with Reaver, I'm going to kill him dead--"

"--get back here--"

"You're mine, you sneaky bastard! You hear me?! I'm going to fucking kill you! You're a marked man!!" Polaris screamed loud enough so that Waverly and the secretary probably heard, but she didn't care--

BANG!

The ground exploded at her feet, stunning her for a moment, and whoever was holding her back took the opportunity to pull her into the safety of the grove. Polaris caught a final glimpse of Reaver lying on his side, gun in bloody hand, smirking at her through his bangs, before he completely fell unconscious, weapon dropping loosely from his grip.

And then she whirled around, saw the bright blue hair even in the shadow of the trees, and said, disbelievingly, "Miyavi?"

He scratched his head and turned his head, looking past the safety of the trees. "Whatshername, with the claws, she's having fun," he said somewhat sadly, as if he wanted to join in. "But I noticed something while you girls were all yelling at each other." He pointed towards the trapdoor. "The pond's filling up."

Polaris blinked, and glanced around. Sure enough, Sho was right...for once.

"Crap! We'd better go."

"Yeah, I thought you'd say that." The wistful tone again.

Polaris frowned at him, and he smiled sadly and didn't move. <Yeah, must be killing him to not beat anyone up like Blaze is doing,> she thought to herself cynically. And she looked out, saw Blaze doing what she did best; there was a man weeping on the ground, cradling what was unmistakably a dislocated arm. Jun was also hiding in the safety of the trees, just a few feet away. Polaris raised her voice.

"Jun!" Polaris half-shouted. "Where's everyone else?"

[ST]

The fight between the SeeDs and Dotna troops escalates feverishly as word of the pond filling up reaches each of your ears, and you are desperate to vanquish the Dotna and get to the trapdoor before it is obscured from you forever, while the Dotna seems to be adamant on blocking your way, in typical Dotna manner. So in the throes of your fighting, you do not notice the small group of people creeping towards the pond and sneaking in through the trapdoor.


Opps

After wandering around in the labyrinth for ten minutes, you find yourself coming back to the entrance where the trapdoor was. Frustrated, one of you blows the maze wall open and it actually works. The other two marvels at your genius and you happily blow your way through to the other side.

When you reach the other side of the labyrinth, you are faced with an area that looks like a small and rather primitive Garden, less than half the size of any of the current ones. After venturing into its lobby, you can see that it has not been touched for several generations. A handful of statues are scattered about.

Van

You can roughly make out a door in the wall facing you. It is almost completely covered in rust and dust. Something about it catches your attention.

Next to the door, there is a statue of a beautiful lady with half a torso.


SeeDs

You are still fighting.

Suddenly, Waverly, flushing red in the face, yells out to the troops to retreat, and true to her command, all the Dotna soldiers pull out of the battles and start retreating from the grounds. In a minute's time, only you and your teamates stand amidst the fallen Dotna soldiers.

Meanwhile the water filling the pond is approaching the three-quarter mark.

[vanesse]

Van was still coughing at the cloud of dusts that seemed to engulf her when Deo decided to make those small explosions. In a way that was good thinking, but in a way, that was really bad for her lungs.

They reached a landmark inside the labyrinth. She concluded this must be the end of the maze.

"We made it!" Van announced chirpily, sprinting closer to the dead end where a half-statue was. She stopped to observe the wall.

/Dead end.../ Paridge mumbled.

"I've seen this in movies," the girl said. "There should be a hidden switch here. Somewhere." There was confidence in her tone. She wasn't entirely 100% sure, but a huge part of her believed so. "Let's look for a switch." She turned to Deo and Jaime. "This can't be just a dead end."

[miyavi]

It didn't take long for the DoTNA soldiers - the ones that weren't dead, anyway - to vanish like retarded ninjas. Sho blinked in astonishment as he watched them file out noisily behind Waverly. His jaw hung slackly, and when the last soldier left, he couldn't contain himself. He stepped out, one hand stretched out as if to pull the soldiers back in for a quick beatdown.

"Tha...that was it?" he managed. "They just LEAVE? Fucking retards!!"

<...Yup.> Zephyr, in usual Zephyr manner, sounded completely omnipotent, even with monosyllabic smartass answers.

[Hadrian D'arcell]

Hadrian was well aware of the pond being filled up. He was also well aware that his magnetic gizmo wasn't properly configured. If it were, he could've manipulated those bullets to backfire on the DotNAs. It was the first battle and he screwed up. It didn't matter now, it looked like the bad guys were retreating together with their good-for-nothing leaders.

He glanced at the other members--Sho was shouting in discontent--before heading towards the pond where he found himself halting. He almost stepped on Reaver's head. Apparently, he was Polaris's brother, which was interesting. He looked down on him. He seriously needed help.

"Uh, before we go in, I think this man needs help." Hadrian said, his brows lifting. "Really bad." He didn't know whether to help or not to seeing he's DotNA, but it just didn't seem right to leave someone like this. If only someone had curaga.

[Polaris Lyn]

Polaris turned at the sound of Hadrian's voice.

"Uh, before we go in, I think this man needs help. Really bad."

"Reaver," she breathed, hurrying to her brother's side and dropping to her knees. He was alive, barely breathing, gasping shallowly, and his eyes were closed, but when she pulled aside his jacket to check the wound on his abdomen, he wearily blinked. His amber-brown irises were clouded with pain.

"You know," he said suddenly, and Polaris's head snapped up, "I don't remember seeing 'keep the enemy alive' in a SeeD manual. Don't you people usually shoot first, ask questions later?"

Polaris scowled down at him for a moment. "Do you have a pocketknife, you jackass? I don't think Xu's secretary was a good shot. There's a bullet in your side, and I can't cast Regen unless I remove the foreign body. Unless you wanna walk around with a lead nugget in your bloodstream. You'll die slowly, and more painfully that way, you know."

Reaver smiled dazedly. "You're a regular Phoenix, Tom."

"Knife, Reaver," she retorted testily.

"Pants...somewhere..." And Polaris rummaged through the pockets of his pants briefly before pulling out a butterly blade. She looked down at the small silver blade grimly, about four inches long, then met her brother's eyes. He sighed heavily and she pulled his white polo shirt open, revealing a bullet wound near the left kidney that was bright with blood.

"Alright, Reaver. You might want to scream." With that statement, Polaris cut a vertical slash over the wound, and red blood gushed forth.

"Son of a...FUCKING HELL!!" Reaver's hands flew to his scalp, and he clutched at his hair as Polaris reached into the incision with her index and middle fingers, groping for the bullet.

Polaris glanced up, eyes scanning the pond. It was filling up, and quickly. "Damn you," she muttered to her half-delirious brother, "for being an idiot and getting shot. When you're all better, I'm going to fucking stab you in the throat for this."

She reached deeper, her hand slippery with blood and fat, fingertips grazing soft inner organs that twitched as Reaver gasped in pain -

<There!>

She brushed against something hard, small and alien, and she managed to grasp it between two fingers. She pulled it out, a scarlet-tinted black bullet, and threw it away absently as she pressed her palms lightly against the open wound on Reaver's side.

"Regen," she whispered, and the magic hummed to life within her, surging forth from her hands in a bright orange flare. It was not the gentle, pale gold light that usually emanated from her palms when she healed her teammates, but a bright, almost blinding pulse of energy, fueled by determination tinted by desperation. Her brother was dying, and rational thought was not the first thing on her mind.

She moved her hands away, and noted with a soft, relieved sigh that the wound was slowly healing, the blood drying and the cut mending itself, returning to unmarked flesh. She checked his arm; it was healing much quicker than the side wound. But that was to be expected - since the bullet had passed through Reaver's arm cleanly, it left no poisons in the bloodstream, and Regen was a kind of supportive magic that healed both inner and outer injuries, albeit slowly.

"You're fine." When she spoke, her voice was coolly even.

"Good." Reaver sat up with a groan and grinned at her, before holding his gun in front of her face.

Her eyes flickered from the barrel of the gun to her brother's face. He looked blank, expressionless, and for a moment she thought he pulled the trigger, but instead, he had put the safety on and stowed the revolver into the hidden holster under his jacket.

"I suppose I should go and follow my fearless leader and leave you to your treasure hunting. Same threats apply next time we meet, I'll kill you all, Adel will triumph over Garden, so on and so forth." Reaver shrugged as he buttoned up his shirt and calmly rose to his feet. He glanced around at the SeeDs, amazingly calm despite the fact that he was surrounded. "So. See you all."

Polaris said nothing.

[Diego Stanton]

"See? I told you guys that blowing stuff up solves everything." Deo grinned confidently while ignoring Vanesse's coughing. When the dust cleared away, Deo saw that they were standing in what looked like a Garden. But he wasn't quite sure if it was a Garden or not, seeing as he'd never been in one before. After walking for a few minutes, the trio found themselves in what looked like a dead end.

"Let's look for a switch. This can't be just a dead end." Vanesse said, optimistic as always.

"Duh.... it's the statue," Deo said as if it were obvious. He walked up to it and brushed a few cobwebs off of its face before sticking his fingers into the empty sockets of the statue's eyes.

"Ah!... shit!," Deo cursed and pulled out his finger, which was bleeding profusely. "I think something bit me," he grimaced when he saw a huge spider crawl out of one of the eyes of the statue.

"Yeah, I guess it's not the statue then," Deo slumped against the wall and slid down until he was sitting. "Maybe we really are at a dead end."

[Hadrian D'arcell]

Hadrian felt his muscles ache at the "operation" Polaris performed on her brother. Despite of the Regen spell, he doubted the man was free of pain. His eyebrows furrowed the moment Reaver got up and boasted about Adel. He would never understand the likes of him.

"So. See you all." Reaver gave them one final glance.

"After what they just did to you? You can still proudly say that?" Hadrian spoke up in his post, eyeing the DotNA warily.

Stardust tied the jacket tighter around her waist and looked up. "Let him go back to them and get killed, maybe he can do us a favor and give Waverly a message: her days are numbered." She started walking towards the pond when the Shumi Elder came out of his hiding place.

"In my hut there is a shaman. We can take a look at your wounds and give Curaga," the elder said, earning a surprised look from Stardust. "You may be an enemy but we help you as an individual. We cannot stand idly."


********************
EDIT: Haha sorry Pol!!

[Bun]

S'okay, Ate Rica, it was funny as hell. XDD Sex change.

---

Reaver smiled beningly at the Shumi Elder. "Thank you." His voice was calm, light and conversational when he turned to Stardust. "And I'll be sure to pass along your message to my leader of kindness and compassion."

Sho spoke up. "You're going back? Didn't whatshername shoot you?"

Reaver shrugged. "No, it was that traitor from Garden. And besides, I don't follow Waverly's ideals. I follow Adel's, and so far, she's been nothing but a wonderful sorceress queen."

From her position on the ground, Polaris snorted in disbelief. Reaver's gaze met hers and she turned away, rising to her feet, pushing her hair away from her face with her bloody hands and leaving a scarlet streak on one cheek. Reaver addressed the SeeDs. "Good luck with the Ruby; we'll be stealing it from you eventually. And take care of the brat over there," he tilted his head towards Polaris, who scowled at him, "we've got something to finish."

"Whatever," Polaris muttered, and Reaver smiled cheerily before making his way slowly to the Shumi Elder.

Sho spoke up again. "So...are we going?"

[ST]

Deo's new banner *_____*
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SeeDs

Just as the Shumi Elder bid them goodluck, the bunch of SeeDs barely made it inside before the pond completely filled up. It became even dimmer when the gate closed and the only thing you could see were the unusual fireflies flying around with their golden glow. It took a while for your eyes to adjust and for you to comprehend that you were inside an ancient garden with high walls swathed with wild vines.

Suddenly, you felt the ground shake for a while then stillness. It seemed like something opened somewhere. You looked around.


Opps

Who would've thought that the statue Deo just touched was the switch you were looking for. The ground shook and a few debris and dust clouds seeped through the hidden door when it suddenly began moving to provide passage for you three. Without hesitation, you three continued inside. You marveled at what you had seen. Inside was a palace, an old untouched palace with wide pearl hallways and walls painted with an unknown symbols or designs. Ahead of you was a huge antique painting of a great castle standing proud under a cloudless sky. You would guess that it was probably what this whole castle looked like from afar--or rather, what it used to look like. You almost jumped to your feet when the door suddenly shut behind you with a loud slam leaving no trace that it had opened.