I am really sorry, and I mean really, really, REALLY truely sorry. I never meant to put this off for so long. But, writers block hit me full on, and then school swamped me. I'm sorry. I don't know what to say. I don't think anything can really cover the reason why I was gone for almost six full months... I'm sorry. But hopefully, as my writers block gets better, I'll update more this summer. Hopefully.
Please, just read the chapter.
Disclaimer: I only own OC's and plot and story line. Everything else belongs to their respective owners
Chapter 20
"Ack!" Jaden coughed as he was once again tossed across the deck of the Tartarus by Jared. Really, this was getting old. Jaden was surprised that Jared wasn't getting bored by this by now. That had to be at least the fifth time today that he had been thrown across the Tartarus.
"Once more," Jared said coldly, handing Jaden his sword back. Jaden sighed.
"Aren't we done yet?" He whined, and Jared glared at the boy.
"No." He told Jaden. "Not until you get this. How can you protect Jeanna if you can't even protect yourself?" Jason sighed, watching the fight between the two. Really, why did Jared have to taunt the boy like that?
"Play nice you two," He advised, but the advice fell upon deaf ears as Jaden charged Jared again.
Jared blocked the strike, and tried to force Jaden off of his sword, and he did succeed in that. However, the sword didn't go flying from his hands this time, and Jaden went back in for another attempt. Jared blocked this attack too, and sent the sword flying from Jaden's hands. Jaden, though, wouldn't let this be the end of the spar. He dove for his sword quickly, and brought the sword up just as Jared was bringing it down between Jaden's eyes. Jaden though, knocked the sword away and was swinging back up to his feet, engaging in combat with his other self once more.
"You're doing a good job." Jared said stoically. "But not good enough. You need to be prepared for everything Jaden, and I mean everything. If we have to go against Ryan again, he's not going to hold back on you just because Jeanna likes you. He has different views. You've picked your side, and to him the only thing that he cares is that you didn't pick his. As far as he can be concerned is that you're just a harmless fly. Ryan will kill you the next chance he gets when your guard is down if he has to. This is war Jaden, and you need to be prepared. Otherwise, you'll just become another nameless body on any old battle field, no one knowing who you are. Do you really want to hurt Jeanna like that?" Jaden glared at Jared.
"No," He replied. "But I also know that Jeanna doesn't want this war to happen either. She doesn't want anybody to get hurt- you and I both know that!" Jared smirked.
"Do we?" He retorted. "Face it Jaden- neither of us really knows exactly what the young princess feels!" Jared made to say something else, but Jason cut him off.
"Boys, watch what you say," He warned. "We wouldn't want this information falling into the wrong hands, now would we?" The boys went lax, holding their swords loosely by their sides. Jaden cocked his head to the side, confused.
"What do you mean, Jason?" He asked. Jason sighed.
"We aren't sure if we can really trust this group," Jason told Jaden. "Until we find out, we have to be careful with the information we give out- even if it is to just each other. For all we know, the side Ryan is on could actually be the good guys and we're teaming up with the bad guys." Jaden's face fell, that just didn't seem right!
"But," Jaden protested. "They don't seem bad! How can you not trust them? Besides, they told us that the side Ryan was with was the bad guys!" Jared snorted.
"Very easily." Jared snorted rudely. "They could have lied to us. That's how we can't trust them. Until we know for sure, we can't fully trust them." Jaden looked to them with hurt filled eyes.
"But-" Jaden protested weakly, and Jared glared at him.
"If you go in blindly trusting someone, nothing good can come from it!" Jared snapped. Jaden opened his mouth to protest, but Jason shook his head, signaling to Jaden that the argument was over.
"Now," Jared ordered. "Come at me again."
Jaden gave his other self an icy glare and leaped at him again.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
"Hey!" A voice called from behind Zoey. "Hey you, Zoey- right?" Zoey turned around to see the girl from the other day at the café.
"Uh, you're the girl from the other day, right?" She asked. "Kaitlyn- right?" The girl nodded, coming to a stop by Zoey.
"That's right!" She replied. Zoey laughed nervously, and then looked at Kaitlyn.
"Was there something you wanted?" Zoey asked the blonde, and the girl blinked before realizing that she had been the one that had stopped Zoey.
"Oh yeah," Kaitlyn giggled, embarrassed. "Well, I guess I just wanted to apologize." Zoey blinked, and looked at Kaitlyn confused.
"Apologize?" She asked. "For what?"
"Well," Kaitlyn said, looking up at the sky as the two started walking down the street, "I guess, for one, my sister's behavior. She's never been much of a talker." Zoey nodded.
"I- uh, noticed," Zoey replied. Kaitlyn brought her head down and smiled at Zoey.
"Yeah," Kaitlyn said. "She wasn't always like that. Really, it only got worse after the accident."
"Accident?" Zoey asked, then immediately yelled at herself for prying- this wasn't her business!
"Our house burned down," Kaitlyn replied. "Our parents, brother, and our little sister all died in the fire."
"I'm sorry," Zoey apologized immediately, "I shouldn't have pried!" Kaitlyn shook her head and wiped what seemed to be the beginnings of tears away.
"No, it's fine." Kaitlyn reassured the redhead. "What my sister doesn't get is that sometimes we have to tell somebody about our suffering to fully get over it. I'm sorry; I'm probably wasting your time, aren't I?" Zoey shook her head.
"No, you're not." Zoey told the girl. Kaitlyn laughed a little.
"No, it's alright, you don't have to lie," Kaitlyn told Zoey. "Besides, I'm probably the one who should be going- my sister is probably going to be wondering where I am." And without waiting for anything from Zoey, Kaitlyn was skipping across the sidewalk and had disappeared into the park.
Zoey sighed and made to begin walking again, but a familiar creature met her ears. It was mini-mew.
"Predasite Alert! Predasite Alert!"
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Being blind wasn't so bad, Jeanna thought aimlessly as she made her way cautiously yet quickly through the streets of this strange place. It was weird- she had never been there before- at least, she thought she hadn't –yet her feet knew where to go like she was there every day of her life.
She really didn't understand why she did what she did just back there- not at all.
'I guess,' She thought to herself, 'I just didn't want to be holed up somewhere again- with nothing to do and kept back like some sort of secret weapon just waiting to be unleashed.'
With a sigh, Jeanna stopped in the middle of the street. As she began to move again- she was ran into by someone, knocking them both over.
"Ouch," Jeanna whined, and tried to find her footing to pull herself back up.
"Heh, sorry about that," A boys' voice rang through her ears. "Here, let me help you up." And Jeanna's hand was grabbed and she was pulled to her feet.
"Uh, thanks," Jeanna replied. "And don't worry about it- I was probably going to trip sometime soon anyways. I'm Jeanna, you?" She held out her hand to shake, and the boy laughed, taking her hand and shaking it.
"Naruto Uzumaki! I'm going to be the next Hokage- believe it!" The boy announced loudly, and Jeanna laughed a little. This Naruto boy- he reminded her of Jaden.
"That's nice," Jeanna told Naruto. "Well, I should probably get going now." Jeanna went to walk again when Naruto's voice stopped her.
"You look familiar," He said. "Have we met before?" Jeanna laughed.
"Obviously not," She giggled. "And, please, I really must get going." Naruto snapped his fingers, and Jeanna didn't move. Why bother, when the boy was just going to stop her again?
"You look like that woman Granny Tsunade was with!" Naruto said, and Jeanna froze. That meant-
No. Jeanna shook her head. That wasn't possible.
"Please." Jeanna said, starting to walk. "Leave me alone, I need to get going." And without waiting for anything to be said by Naruto, Jeanna was off again, ignoring everything said by said boy.
It just wasn't possible, it just couldn't be true.
Yet, in Jeanna's heart, deep down, she knew it was true.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
So, yeah, Chapter 20. I'm sorry if it was terrible...
Please Read and Review and tell me what you think.
~~Paw-Chan Signing Out~~
