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Last time . . .
"Justin?" He said still wondering who it was, but almost sure it was Justin.
The figure's eyes, as well as, his hands, stopped glowing.
"How'd you know my name?" A hard cruel voice said through his black mask. "Who are you? Who sent you?!"
Josh took off his mask, knowing it was Justin and threw it to the ground. The figure then stood there shocked for a moment and took off running. Josh followed him and from rooftop to rooftop they jumped.
"JUSTIN STOP!" Josh called out.
This time . . .
Justin stopped on one of the rooftops, and took off his mask revealing a shorter haircut than last Josh had seen him.
"What are you doing here Josh?" Justin said still with a hard and cruel voice.
"I . . . I . . . we, need your help." Was all Josh could mutter to say, "You have to come back with me!"
"I'm not going anywhere. How do I know this isn't a trick?!"
"To what?"
"You tell me!"
"Is that what you think?"
"I don't know what I think, that's why I'm asking!"
"After all the things we've been through, why would I leave you be all this time, then come back just to trick you?! I think you would know me better than that! I wish I could say the same thing about you!"
"What's that supposed to mean!?" Justin said moving in closer.
"I thought we were friends!"
"We were . . . are . . .I dunno . . ."
"Yeah? Then why the disappearing act? Why didn't you bother telling ANY of us?! Why'd you run away?! Why'd you do that to us? To your mother?!"
"STOP!"
"No! I wanna know why! That's the least I deserve!"
"No!"
"TELL ME JUSTIN!"
"FINE! You wanna know why?!?" Justin said as he walked closer up to Josh's face, the lightning returning to his eyes, "Because of you!"
"What?!"
"Always living in your shadow! No matter what I did!"
"What the hell are you talking about?!?"
"Mr. Chosen One! Mr. I found my true love and I'm happy!"
"Is that what that was all about?!? Well I got news for you! Do you think that was easy?! You have NO idea how much shit I have to put up with because of all that! But you! You had a chance, just like Joey and Chris did! Lance made his choice to be with me a long time ago. You three had endless possibilities ahead of you, and you go and run away from it all?! What kind of shit is that!?"
"Yeah, I had a choice and I made it! I wanted to start out fresh, and what better way to do it than die and get reborn again?!"
"Is this what you call being reborn?! About to kill an innocent man for no reason?!"
"Not for no reason, for the right price!"
"What?!?"
"Why am I even still here?! Goodbye Josh!" He said turning around to walk away.
Josh grabbed his arm and said,
"You're not going anywhere but with me BACK to Virginia!"
"Let go of me Josh, I don't want to fight you . . ."
"Why? Cause you know you'll lose?!"
"There you go with that Chosen One bullshit again!"
"Who said anything about me being the Chosen One? Come on, if the only way I'm going to get you to come back with me is to fight you, then by all means, bring it on!"
Back in Virginia.
Joey was in one of the massive hallways, trying to figure out how to get back to his room. While wandering around, Lance rounded the corner.
"Oh, hey Scoop!"
"Scoop? Wow . . . I haven't heard that in years!" Lance said pulling his eyes up from the book he was reading.
"Whatcha reading?"
"Nothin important."
"Come on . . ."
"Something about the Vampire Gods."
"Oh . . . ok . . ."
"Nothing you'd be interested in."
"So, how do I get back . . . To . . . my . . . Aagh!!"
"Joey . . . Wh . . . what's wr . . . wrong . . . Aagh!!"
Both men collapsed on the floor and felt a pain in their chests.
Back in Arizona.
"Yeah, I'm going to be going out of town for a little while. I just wanted to know if you could pick up my mail for me and check on the house every once and awhile." Chris said to his neighbor Michel, sitting on the couch in his house.
"Sure, where're you goin?"
"To visit some . . . Some friends. I'm going to be taking Justin with me too."
"Oh, I see. Well, no problem Chris, if there's anything you need, just call me."
"Yeah . . . ok . . . I . . . I . . . will . . . Aagh!!" Chris said grabbing at his chest, almost falling.
"You ok?" Michel said getting up and moving towards him, "Chris . . . Chris!"
Back in Virginia.
Beryl came out of his room. He heard something hit the floor and wondered what it was. As he stepped out in the hallway, he saw Joey and Lance on the floor, grabbing their chests in pain.
"Guy? Are you ok?" He asked with no answer, "Guys!!"
He ran over to them and knelt down beside them. He put his hands on their chests and felt a burning sensation, one of rage. After a couple of seconds, he figured out what was wrong. He remembered a dream he had about his family, where his father and uncle were in a heavy argument that almost turned violent. He then saw his brother, mother and best friend, grab their chests in pain in a way similar to how the guys were. Remembering what they told him could happen if things got out of hand, he acted fast. He moved up a little from the guys and got in full lotus position. He closed his eyes and started to chant, "Spirit of flight, mother of sight." over and over. Before long, the area surrounding him turned dark blue.
Back in Moscow.
"I'm not going to fight you Josh!" Justin said, the fury showing in his eyes and fists.
"Come on, you obviously want to prove something! Here's your chance!"
The rage took over Justin's body and he was about to strike Josh, but just before the first hit connected, a dark blue light flashed and engulfed them. They looked around confusedly and felt like they were floating.
"Enough!" They heard a familiar voice say.
"Who said that?!" They both said.
"I did!" Beryl said showing himself.
"Beryl? What are you doing here?!?" they said.
"Stopping a disaster from forming! Look at what you're doing to your brothers!"
He waved his hand and in 2 places, the dark blue surroundings turned into a screen. One had Joey and Lance, crouched on the floor grabbing their chests, and the other showed Chris on the floor of a living room doing the same, with a man kneeling beside him with a phone in his hand.
"Look what your fighting is doing! You must make amends now, or it will turn fatal!"
"Oh my god!" they both said.
"I . . . I . . . I'm sorry Jus, I . . . I didn't mean what I said!" Josh said in a sorrowful panic.
"Me . . . me too Josh! I . . . I didn't mean to . . . I'm sorry!" Justin said as tears formed in his eyes. They floated towards each other and landed in each other's embrace. Tears flowing down both of their faces, they landed and were now back on the rooftop. They realized where they were and said,
"I'm so sorry!"
"I'm sorry I ran away!" Justin said.
"I'm sorry for what I did!" JC said.
Back in Arizona.
"Yes, I need an ambulance quick!" Michel said into the phone.
"Mich . . . I'm . . . I'm ok!" Chris said sitting up.
"Like hell you are! I'm calling an ambulance!"
"Really, I'm fine!" Chris said grabbing the phone from Michel and hanging it up.
"What the hell'd you do that for?"
"I'm ok now! Look!" Chris said flipping back up to his feet.
"You sure? I don't think you should be flying!"
"I'm not, don't worry!"
"Then how are you getting wherever it is you're going?"
"Don't worry about it, Mich." He said heading for the door, "Thanks again! I gotta get goin!"
"But . . . But Chris!" Michel said as the door to his house closed.
Back in Virginia.
"What the hell was that!?" Joey said as he and Lance came to.
They saw Beryl still sitting in full Lotus position and looked at him strangely. They stood up and walked over to him. Just as they got there, Beryl came back.
"Good! You're all ok!" He said standing up.
"What was that?!"
"JC found Justin."
"He did!?" Lance exclaimed, "How do you know?!"
"You know that burning you felt in your chest?"
"Yeah." They both said.
"That was them about to fight. I mean, beat the hell out of each other kind of fighting."
"Huh?" They said.
"It's the rage of fire. Whenever any two members of a team get into a heated argument, so much so, that it's about to turn violent, the other three members feel it. If not stopped, it could kill the other members."
"How'd you know . . ." Joey said as Beryl cut him off.
"As I once told you, my family has taught me many things. That was just one of them. I felt your chests when you were on the floor, and they were burning up. I had to stop Justin and JC before they did something that would cause a great disaster."
Back in Moscow.
"So, when do we leave?" Justin asked.
"I knew you'd come around!" Josh said.
"Yeah, it only took us almost beating the shit out of each other to get it to that point."
Justin looked at Josh and then stopped in his tracks, he wrapped his arms tightly around Josh and said,
"I missed you."
Josh did the same and held him in a tight embrace.
"I missed you too Just." Josh said closing his eyes.
They broke apart and Justin looked at him.
"You look . . . different!" Justin said.
"So do you!" Josh replied.
They went down the stairs of the building and back to Josh's hotel room.
"You're staying here too? I'm like 2 floors down!" Justin said.
"Oh shit . . . well go get your stuff and we can get the hell out of here! We have work to do!"
Back in Arizona.
"But I don't want to go anywhere! I want to stay here and play with Jack!" Little Justin said as Chris was packing some clothes for him in a suitcase.
"You can bring him with you. Don't worry bud, you're gonna have a great time! I promise!"
"But I'm scared!"
"Why?" Chris said stopping what he was doing and taking his son on his lap.
"B . . . Because, what happens if the plane crashes?" He said lookin at Chris with his innocent eyes.
"Don't worry Justy . . . I promise you that we're not going to crash!"
"B . . . but how do you know?"
"Have I ever lied to you before?"
"No."
"Then trust me."
"Ok daddy . . ."
"Hey, you look tired!"
"Uh-uuh!" he said yawning.
"How bout this? How bout you go to sleep now, and by the time you wake up, we'll be there, I promise!"
"Ok . . ."
Little Justin climbed into his bed followed by his new puppy, Jack, and quickly went to sleep. Chris couldn't help but smile at his beautiful son, lying there on the bed so innocent and sweet. Every time he looked at him, he reminded him of his mother.
"I hope I'm doing the right thing Dani." He whispered as he closed his son's suitcase and went to his room.
After he finished packing his suitcase, he gathered everything that they were taking with them and put them all together in one spot. He focused his eyes on all of the luggage, raised his hands slowly, then closed his eyes and concentrated on Lance. Once he had Lance locked in his mind, all of the luggage disappeared.
Back in Virginia.
"Whoa . . ." Joey said.
"What?" Lance asked as they were now walking through the house.
"I still can't believe all this!"
"What?"
"Well, for one thing, the Josh actually found Justin."
"I knew he would. Once he sets his mind on doing something, he usually won't stop until it gets done."
"Then there's that whole thing about them almost fighting and killing us if they would've!"
"Yeah, that was serious!"
"Then, there's the issue itself with Justin! I mean, why did he run away like that?"
"I wish I knew."
"Not to mention how Chris is going to react to everything."
"Oh yeah, that's gonna be tough!"
"He's the one who's been taking it the hardest."
"I know. He's been barely making enough to support himself, let alone his son!"
"How do you know?"
"I checked out his savings account."
"What?!"
"It's a good thing I did too!"
"Why?"
"He literally had nothing left!"
"Oh my god! How? I mean . . . we were all practically billionaires!"
"He gave most of it away to charity and only kept enough to live comfortably."
"But why didn't he just come to one of us for help?"
"You know why."
"Oh yeah . . . Dani."
"I just hope that he realizes that it wasn't his fault."
"Me too."
"I also hope that after this is all over, things will be different!"
"I'm sure they will."
"Yeah . . . they will . . ." Lance said thinking about the riddle he read in the book.
While they were walking through the house, they passed through the front lobby. They decided to go up the stairs and continue their walk. When they reached the top of the landing, they stood in place against the railing looking over the front lobby. It was then that Joey noticed what was in the center of the lobby.
"What's that?!" He said looking down.
"A circle of power."
"What?"
"You see those letters?"
"Yeah . . ."
"Start at the N and tell me what you see."
"Which N?"
"That one."
"Ok . . . N . . . S . . . Y . . . N . . . C . . . That's . . ."
"Yup."
"But what does it do?"
"In the book, it tells of the prophecy."
"Since when?"
"Since after New York."
"Ok . . ."
"It says that in order to strengthen our minds and our hearts, we must form a circle of power and take within us understanding."
"Huh?"
"We gotta stand on those letters, all concentrate and it's supposed to help us in our fight."
"Oh . . . So I guess, Justin's on the N, Chris is on the S . . . and so on, and so on."
"Yup."
"So when do we use it?"
"I have no idea! According to the book, it will let us know."
As the two stared down at the powerful circle, Joey was taking in how mystical it appeared. Each letter was in gold, it was surrounded by a smoky blue marble tile with gold trimming. Coming out of each side of the letter, is what connected the letters and formed the circle, is what looked like an onyx beam. In the middle of the beam was a thin gold strip, that reached each trimming of the letters. Coming out from the bottom of each of the letters was another thin gold line that led to the center of the circle, which had what appeared to be a circular ruby. In between each of the gold lines within the circle was a dark green marble tile. The chandelier that hung from the ceiling was set right over the ruby center, and with the light that shined off of the gold, the power could be felt within each of the slayer's bodies.
As Joey continued to stare, he was brought out of his trace by a number of suitcases that appeared in the green piece of the circle that had the S over it.
"What the hell?!" He said startled by the appearance.
"Looks like Chris is on his way." Lance said.
"Oh . . ."
Back in Arizona.
Chris went back into his son's room and took one last look at him sleeping in his bed. He picked him up and Little Justin snuggled closely against his father's warm body. Chris held onto his son with one hand, and picked up his puppy with the other.
"Hold on, I hope this works!" Chris said as he wasn't sure he would be able to teleport that far.
Back in Virginia.
"Dude! Why's that thing glowing?!?" Joey said as the red center of the circle started to glow.
"I . . . I don't know!" Lance said equally as confused as Joey, "Beryl! Come here quick!"
"What? What happened?!?" Beryl said appearing behind Joey and Lance.
"Look!" Joey said pointing to the circle.
As they all stared at the circle, a white transparent circular light shot up around the gold boarder of the S.
TBC . . .
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