Chapter Seventy

Chapter Seventy

- Destroyed castle; Mount Everest; Earth; May 13th, 2009-

The cold somehow grew worse on the trip back to EDJ’s castle. By the time they reached their destination, the frost had seeped through DJ’s armor and into his bones. He shivered again. Had he thought about it earlier, he would have asked to borrow one of Misty’s spare coats. Surely one of them could have fit him properly. He pulled the vehicle up to the large boulder in front of the ruins and turned off the engine. “I don’t see how you can stand this cold. I'm freezing up here.”

“I actually find it quite refreshing!” Hanna laughed cheerily as she landed in the snow near him before smiling apologetically. “I’m sorry you’re having such a difficult time with it.” Her warm smile faded as she turned back to the castle, or what was left of it. While it was impossible to see the full extent of the damage at night, the looming silhouette of black bricks against the snowy backdrop was enough to tell the once-beautiful castle was well beyond repair. The air was still filled with a nasty smokey smell, though most of the exterior fires were gone. Whatever still smoldered was deep within the ruins. 

Hanna pulled out a flashlight from her belt as she stepped closer to the wreckage, looking around. “I don’t see Ace or Joker anywhere.” 

“Jester,” DJ corrected, removing the frozen chunk of Evil Other from the snowmobile.

“Whatever. Either way, they’re not here.” She frowned. “They didn’t say how long they’d be gone either.” 

DJ frowned as well as he turned around. Leaving the treeline behind, the boulder and ruins were all they had available. “Let’s try to find some shelter while we wait,” he said, starting to drag his EO toward the ruins. While the crumbling castle might not be the safest option, if they could find a solid wall or alcove, that was still better than out in the open, freezing wind. Deciding he did not want to waste energy dragging around a heavy block of ice, DJ opted to leave his EO by the snowmobile while they searched the ruins. Hanna kept hold of the mirror. She did not like the idea of leaving Lui anywhere near EDJ in the slightest, frozen or not. They found a suitable corner of wall that was still standing with a partial roof branching away from the destruction. It was difficult to tell if it was originally a room, a hallway, or even a stairwell. It wasn’t much as far as shelter was concerned, but it was the best spot to get out of the cold. This provided some protection from the wind with the least amount of danger. DJ walked around the edges of the rubble, collecting anything that looked like it would catch fire. Splintered boards, planks, legs of chairs, anything he could find. He brought the scraps of makeshift firewood back to the little sheltered area and arranged it together into a pile. He was searching his pockets for a way to light it when Hanna joined him. DJ glanced up. “How’s Lui doing?” he asked, trying to keep a curious expression off his face. 

“Still resting,” she answered quietly. She gently placed the mirror in the snow and leaned it against a section of the wall. Looking at the glass, it didn’t seem like Lui had moved the entire time. He was so still, it almost could have been a fake picture of him in the corner.

“Now that those two aren’t listening in at the moment,” DJ started while he still searched through his pockets and pouches. “Do you think we can trust them?” 

“Not really.” Hanna sat next to the mirror and pulled her knees up. “We don’t really have any other choice. They seem to know a lot more about what’s going on than we do.” 

He nodded in agreement. Finding what he was looking for, DJ pulled a small container from his belt and twisted the top off. He dumped a few fire starting materials into his hand and picked out what he needed. “Do you think we could take them if they attacked us?” he asked somberly. 

“In our current condition, no,” Hanna answered, brows furrowed in thought. “We don’t have any idea of their true power. Jester worries me, but his is an obvious danger. Ace… seems to be the type to conceal much.” She wrapped her arms around her legs. “I hope it doesn’t come down to that.” DJ nodded again. A fair assessment from what they knew so far. He scraped a rod of ferrocerium, sending sparks into the scrap he was trying to ignite. Once. Twice. Thrice. He tried again. Once. Twice. Thrice. No luck. Too wet. It didn’t help that his fingers were already numb. Hanna was watching the sky. Not quite full, yet not quite half, the waning moon hung among a carpet of pink and purple swirls of stars, planets, and galaxies. It was a beautiful night. So far away from city lights and so high up on the mountain, the window to the Milky Way held its own enchantment. So many sparkling lights. So many colors. How many of them were other planets? Was Thorae one of them? “What do you think about what they said would happen to Evil Others? Can they really just…” Her voice trailed off.

“…disappear?” DJ finished for her, still focused on the task in front of him. “Wouldn’t that mean that Jester would disappear too though?” He withdrew the old journal and flipped to the back of the book looking for blank pages. He tore a few out and crumbled them together as he put the book away. Hanna turned to him when she heard the tearing sound. The fire still wasn’t lit. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to distract you,” she said. “I’ll stop talking so you can concentrate.” 

“No need to worry about it,” he answered, scraping the material and sending sparks into the ball of paper. “I appreciate the company.” The paper caught on fire easily. DJ adjusted the flames until the little scrap pile finally started to burn. The campfire grew a little at a time without much more convincing. For that, he was grateful. He sighed and plopped onto the frozen ground with his back against the wall.

Hanna looked back up at the sky. “None of this makes any sense.” 

DJ rubbed his hands together and held them toward the heat of the flames. “I’m sure there’s a reasonable explanation for all the contradictions that keep coming up.” He shrugged with a scoff and slight laugh. “I mean, what’s the worst that could happen?” 

Hanna instantly had an answer. “The three of us suffer very long and painful deaths and our evil selves take control of the world.” She went from staring at the sky to staring at the ground and hugged her knees tighter.

Right... Probably not a good idea to ask an overthinker what the worst case scenario is... DJ watched her sulk for a moment. “We could always leave,” he offered. “Go down the mountain. Find someone else who can help us. There must be someone else out there... With any luck, it would take Ace and Jester a while to track us down.” It was a reasonable suggestion. Every scenario comes with a multitude of choices and options. One is always allowed to change their mind. He didn’t intend for the question to be a test, but Hanna took it as one. 

She blinked at him. “You mean run away?” 

“Only if you don’t trust them enough to go into this other world,” DJ answered. 

Hanna smiled briefly. She knew people who could get them buried so deep it would take the strangers a hundred years to find them, if they ever did. Running was easy. The only problem was there was nowhere to run to. Forged papers? Child’s play. Hidden HQs and secret base camps? A breeze. She was good at disappearing. She knew how to navigate city underbellies like the back of her hand, but going to another world? Rifts? Portals? She didn’t even know where to start. Hiding was easy. Running was easy. She’d done both for years. She wanted to run, but that wouldn’t help Lui. She promised she’d get him out. She promised. At least going to Thorae gave her a direction to run in. She did not yet know that what she was looking for was not what she was truly seeking. Hanna took a deep breath. “We can’t just turn and run away from this. If what they say is true, this is our best shot at rescuing Lui.” She looked DJ in the eye. “If you want to leave, you can, but I’m going. With or without you.” 

DJ gave her a quizzical look. “I’m with you. I wanted to make sure we’re on the same page with all our options here.” He tucked his limbs together to conserve heat, the air from his lungs forming puffs of steam. 

Hanna looked around for the strangers again. “Hopefully, those two wackos come back soon. I don’t want you getting sick… or worse…” She shuddered. 

“If they take too much longer we might have to head back and get some supplies,” he responded. “Misty’s cabin didn’t have too much, but I’d hate to put her out any more. Even if she is helping us out and all, we still barely know her.”

Hanna nodded before a thought suddenly came to her. “Oh! Here.” She dug something out of her satchel and stood up to walk around the fire. “You can have these if you’re still hungry.” 

“Thanks!” he said as she handed him a stack of snack bars. “That’s very nice of- Ah, I don’t need that many- Oh, okay…” He tried to hand the extra snacks back to her, but Hanna already returned to her spot on the other side of the fire. “Thank you.” He unwrapped one of the bars and ate it, tucking the rest into a spare pouch. 

“You should rest while you can,” Hanna said. “I have a feeling we'll need all the energy we can get.”

While DJ didn’t disagree with her, he didn’t like the thought of falling asleep on one of the deadliest mountains in the world either. Yeah, as long as sleeping in temperatures this cold doesn’t just kill me outright... He shivered again. Why in the world did EO build his castle all the way up here?! Oh… EO... He slowly stood up, his joints already feeling stiff. 

“Where are you going?” Hanna asked. 

“To get EO,” he answered. “I left him by the snowmobile.” 

She jumped up. “I’ll go get him. You stay here and warm up by the fire.” She smiled. “We can’t have you ending up as a block of ice too.” DJ laughed in spite of himself and Hanna joined in the laughter. It was a lighthearted moment, two friends laughing together in the midst of their crisis. It was nice to let go of the troubles of the world, if only for a second. “Alright,” DJ gave in while Hanna waved for him to sit down. “Let me know if you need help.” 

“Yeah, yeah,” she said as she started walking toward the boulder. 

“Hey.” 

Hanna stopped and turned back to him with a raised brow. 

“Thank you,” he said again. The humor faded, but his tone was genuine. “Are you ok?” 

She smiled. “I’m fine.”