Dream Drive Ch. 04

He wasn't sure where the rattok was aiming, but Jackson wasn't sure if either of them could take the hit. He wouldn't make it in time before it fired. He did the only thing he could think of - he threw his spear. His weapon arced through the air.

It went wide, clattering to the stone behind the rattok.

You have created a new skill: Spear Toss

The rattok turned its head, examining the fallen weapon, then looked at Jackson. A guttural, growled laugh hacked from the back of its throat. It raised its cane and pointed it straight at him.

A shadow darted in from the right. The rattok whipped its cane to the side and fired the bolt of lightning. The energy arced past Rachel and exploded in the wall. She fell onto the mage and pierced it with the bone dagger. They collapsed to the ground in a heap.

Jackson jogged the rest of the way. There was no struggle; the mage was dead. The lightning in the cane crackled, then died. He saw white essence rush in a stream from the rattok and into Rachel - but some of it split off, streaming into Jackson. Must be from partying - shared experience points. He was glad he'd increased his Spirit before meeting up with Rachel, or he'd already be in overflow.

Jackson inhaled sharply. There was a smoking hole in the side of her leather armor. Her skin was burned and blackened. Blood welled up from the gaping wound.

"...hurts," Rachel said. "Why...?"

"Rachel. Rachel, stay focused," Jackson bent down and scooped her up in his arms. She was light as a feather. He moved her quickly, just a few inches away, and set her down on clean stone away from the rattok - it was already dissolving into that black sludge. "Stay with me. You're injured."

"...I...know that...dumbass. How?"

Jackson peeled the leather back from the edges of the injury. It was even worse than he'd thought. He could see all the way down, though layers of skin and muscle to the slight sheen of exposed organs. It wasn't bleeding too much, but they were miles from the Windseeker camp at the bottom of a ruined city. He couldn't move her that far.

"We can figure this out," Jackson said. "I took a few hits and I didn't get hurt. Maybe it was that particular magic."

"Health bar," Rachel grunted. "My health bar is empty."

Jackson pressed his lips together. So. If their health ran out...they were normal. They could be injured. He could only imagine what would happen if his bar dropped to zero while he had a spear in his gut.

"Rachel, I might have been able to take that hit," Jackson said. "Why did you throw yourself out there if you were that low?"

"Hey..." She shifted to look at him. "Now I don't owe you anything. Faggot. Ah." She winced. Her hands went for her wound, as if trying to press at it.

"Don't touch it," Jackson said. "Just stay still."

"Man, that hurts. Looks bad. I think I'm gonna die." Rachel let her head fall back. "S'okay. I can deal. Just..."

Jackson's hands worried over her side. He didn't know what to do. Should he bind it? Should he try to find water and wash it? Should he just try to move her? How was he going to get through the rattok on the stairs?

"Jacky, come on." Rachel winced again as she drew a breath. "You already met the hero quota today. Hey, let's make it an...experiment. You kill me and see what happens to end PvP."

"That's not happening."

"Might as well...fucking slave to...ah, shit. Can't go there."

"Look, we can - I can get you back to someone that knows how to heal. You're gonna be fine."

"Won't make it on a horse. I know...I know about disease, and health stuff, you know?" She coughed, and tensed. "Wound's not bleeding 'cause...I'm not moving. Heat cauterized some of it. I move, then I bleed, then I die. I don't move, I die anyway. Just more slowly. I'm fucked."

"No you aren't," Jackson said. "I'm going to heal you."

"With what? Spit and -" Rachel coughed. "...prayers? Yeah. Hey, get me some angels. They'll help."

"Not if they're anything like the game trailer."

"I'm dying," Rachel said. "I'm fucking dying and he's still a smartass."

"Don't move," Jackson said. He leveled his hands over her, sizing her up. Ok. Runes. Healing. Convince the body to go back to normal. "I'm going to log out and figure out a spell, then I'll be back. Alright?"

"Log out? Here?"

"Yeah. It'll probably take the full 30 seconds. Keep an eye on me."

Jackson sat back against a column, opened his menu, and logged out. As he'd expected, it took time - he sat in darkness, immobile, unable to feel anything. His body couldn't move an inch, but his thoughts ran at a thousand miles an hour.

And then, his room. He pushed helmet off his head and flung himself into his chair. He didn't reach for his mouse, but instead used his fingers right on the monitor. It was something he hated doing - he disliked rubbing off fingerprints. But it was a little faster.

The touchscreen blinked to life. His hands flew to type in the password for his runes folder. He scrolled through the lists of images. He knew Shaka had taught him Heal, and a few other choice words. He composed a few sentences on a piece of paper, reusing as many runes as possible. He didn't have time for an extended memorization campaign. It would have to be enough.

Jackson hopped over to his bed and logged back in. In a few moments, he reappeared at Rachel's side. He scrambled across the stone until he was kneeling over her.

"...you're back."

"No shit. Shut up and save your strength."

"Do you even..." A cough. "Ugh. Even know what you're doing? I mean, what if I grow an arm or something? I think I'd rather -"

"Shut up and save your strength," Jackson growled.

Rachel closed her mouth.

He checked his essence. 103. Okay. He fished his essence crystals out of his pocket. Nervous fingers fumbled them, and they fell onto the stone. He let them lay there for the time being.

He grasped his power and reviewed the runes in his head. Then, carefully, he drew them. Burnished grey lines appeared in the air over her body. The light exposed the wound further. Jeeze, that was bad.

"I don't...like your expression."

"No talking," Jackson said. "Don't worry. This is easy. The body already wants to heal itself, to stay alive. I just have to push a bit."

"...who're you trying to convince."

"I said no talking," Jackson said. He examined the runes again, checking them one final time.

Heal. Body. Become. Normal.

Return. Muscle. Flesh. Normal.

Stop. Disease.

The sentences here crude, but he felt the point was clear. Jackson placed his hands on her skin. He pushed the essence through the runes, down his hand, and into her body.

It was easier than he expected - just like activating an ability. His essence moved into the potential of the spell like water seeking its level.

Rachel's flesh wavered, shifted. The muscle and sinew that covered her organs started to shift and grow. A grey haze covered Jackson's hands. His essence dropped at an alarming rate. Probably a combination of his shitty stats and his kindergarten-level spell.

He kept pushing in power, trusting in his judgement. The spell was simple, but it worked. Her muscle knit neatly over the wound, sealing it shut, and then her skin began to grow over it in patches, steadily connecting, then spreading. Jackson lifted one of his hands and crushed an essence crystal, feeding the spell more power.

It took about thirty seconds, but when he was done, neat pink skin covered the area where she'd been burned. He leaned back, pocketed his last crystal, and wiped his forehead. "...ok. Done. How do you feel?"

Rachel sat up. She swayed. Jackson steadied her with his hand. "Um...dizzy. But it doesn't hurt."

"You probably lost a little blood," Jackson said. "We'll have to try and take it easy until we get out of here."

Rachel prodded at where her leather had been breached, feeling at the wound. "...that's incredible. I've even got some of my health bar back. Wow. Totally awesome." She clapped her hands together. "Hey, killing that thing gave me 92 essence! Shopping spree! What do you think I should invest in? Maybe some more health. I've been putting everything into Agility so far."

"It's not a bad strategy," Jackson said. She was talkative - that was a good sign. He noted that she still didn't mind his hand on her shoulder. "It just didn't work out this time. You probably don't know, because you haven't seen the other statistics, but you get decreasing returns on investment. Specializing was the right move."

"Good to know," Rachel said. "Do you know what the caps are?"

"I'm pretty sure the first soft cap on HP is at 40 points. Each one before that gave me 1.25 health, and then I started getting 1.0 for points after that. Same for Carry Weight, except it was 0.25 per Strength, and then 0.20 after the first 40."

Rachel nodded as he rattled off the numbers. She was good - she didn't ask him to repeat any of it. This wasn't her first RPG.

"Stay on the ground," Jackson said. "You recover HP a lot faster if you sit and rest. I'll look for an exit."

Rachel nodded. "I picked up on that trick up too. Ooh, hey now. Look at that bad boy."

Jackson glanced where the rattok mage had fallen. Its red robes were lying in a thick puddle of black ooze. An essence crystal was lying in its center - but it was twice the size of the ones he was used to seeing. "That one looks big."

"Go ahead and take it," Rachel said.

"You sure?"

"Do I look unsure to you?"

Jackson had a little deja vu. Chaki had said something very similar. "You look totally sure," he said.

"Then stop complaining and take the crystal so I don't have to give you some sappy lecture about how you should have nice things because you saved my life twice. Capiche?"

Jackson stooped and picked up the crystal. "Don't sell yourself short."

Rachel narrowed her eyes. "Was that a fucking joke, Jacky? Because I really hate it when people comment on that shit."

"No, no," Jackson said, waving his hands. "I meant, earlier, when we were fighting the rattok - if I was alone, I could have died. You held off that huge one for a long time."

"I told you that you won't get into my pants that easy. Flattery won't help. Saving my life doesn't count for anything. I'm not into the whole romance bit."

And I thought I was blunt. "I got that impression," Jackson said. He moved off before he could make himself more of a target.

He worked through the room, feeling along the walls. This seemed like the sort of place that would have a secret lever or hidden chamber. Maybe it had something to do with the magic the rattok had been using.

He wasn't getting anywhere fast. Maybe they'd missed a side passage. Jackson was just about to give up when he touched the back wall with the image of the giant tree.

The inverted pentagram on the bottom of the image flashed white. Something heavy clunked inside the stone. The floor under Jackson's feet shifted. He jumped back.

The stone that lined the columns began to sink into the ground. One by one, segments of the moving slab stopped, forming stairs. They led down to an arch that was hidden beneath the mural.

Rachel whistled. "Check out Indiana Jones over here."

"I thought I was the only one that knew about those movies," Jackson said.

"Last-century films are the shit," Rachel said. She climbed to her feet and peered down the stairs. "Just don't talk to me about Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. That was retarded."

"I thought it was pretty good," Jackson said. "I mean, yeah, aliens. But it was good."

"Fuck you, and fuck Shia LaBeouf."

"Oh, come on. He was hilarious."

"Alright," Rachel said, planting her hands on her hips. "I told you not to get me started, but now you've got me started. I can tell you the scene when that movie totally fell apart - when he fucking runs into the pack of monkeys and starts swinging from the vines like Tarzan. He catches up to a car chase by swinging on vines! And then the monkeys fucking help him beat up the bad guys! Is it supposed to be a serious action film broken by moments of self-aware levity or just a bucket of shit someone dumped all over the franchise? And that's being generous. Shit was fucked way before that."

"Harrison Ford surviving a nuclear bomb by hiding in a lead-lined fridge," Jackson responded.

Rachel raised a finger. Her nose twitched. Her lips worked to the left, then to the right. "That was pretty fucking hilariously awesome, yes. But the monkeys. The fucking monkeys."

Jackson gestured down the stairs. "Ladies first into the pit of eternal peril?"

Rachel pointed. "It's the old man from scene 24!"

Jackson laughed. "You've got good taste."

"Of course I do." Now that she had essence, she brought out the bone dagger and mimicked Jackson's trick of grasping his power, but not pushing it. Her weapon turned into a little flashlight. Jackson kept a hand on the wall as he followed her down into the room.

The stairs continued on, probably a good ten yards downward, and then the path flattened. Jackson had to duck his head slightly to fit. It was dark.

His hand touched something smooth on the wall - metal strips set into the stone. Weird. He figured they would have rusted. The air here was drier than in the rest of the ruins. Maybe that was it.

"Okay," Rachel said. "Less creepy, more scary. Feels like we're going into a tomb."

"Maybe we are."

"Time to sing a song!" Rachel said loudly. "A song to make things not as scary!"

"Something appropriate, I hope," Jackson said.

"Go. Now. If you want it!" Rachel half-mumbled her lyrics, keeping the tone more than the words. "An otherworld awaits you. Don't. You. Give up on it! You bite the hand that feeds you!"

"All alone, cold fields you wander," Jackson said. He didn't sing it; he said the words just as they were, only maintaining the rhythm. The lyrics weren't exactly melodic, anyway. "Memories of it, cloud your sight. Fills your dreams, disturbs your slumber. Lost your way, a fallen knight."

Rachel slowly rotated, as if she were standing on a moving platform. Her heels turned on the floor until she faced him. "No. Way."

"Final Fantasy X was great. You gotta play the classics, right?" Jackson smiled. "I've still got that song on my computer. Used to listen to it on repeat to drown out...other things."

"You know," Rachel said, "you keep surprising me." She started to walk again. "Which one's your favorite?"

"I feel like X had the best characters, and I loved the upgrade tree. 7 was the big hit, but you can't suplex a train in 7."

"Tidus was kinda a fruitcup pretty boy."

"Maybe a little."

"7 was pretty good, but not my favorite," Rachel said. "I kinda had a total crush on Sephiroth though. I had four posters - five, maybe? - in my room. Cloud was such a poser. Who the fuck names their kid Cloud?"

"Neutral on the subject."

"My favorite was probably 6," Rachel said. "I did really like 8, though. It might have aged since then. Gunblades were pretty cool when I was hitting puberty, but my willing suspension of disbelief isn't what it used to be."

"I know what you mean."

"What did you think of 13?"

"Disappointing piece of trash," Jackson said. "I don't acknowledge its existence."

"You're a good man, Charlie Brown."

"Who's Charlie Brown?"

Rachel sighed, then chuckled. "It's ok. We can't all be perfect. At least FF17 stopped the train of mediocrity."

Jackson nodded. "17 was definitely a culminating point. Hell, it's industry standard even today. Emil Mohammed listed it as one of his major influences."

"Hey, you ever wonder why everyone always calls him by his full name?" Rachel asked. "It's always Emil Mohammed, together like that. Never one or the other."

Jackson shrugged. "Just seems to happen with some people."

There wasn't much more hallway to go until it ended - their conversation petered out. Rachel stopped just inside the arch at the end of the passage. She was looking up. Jackson frowned a bit, then continued on. And then he saw why she stopped.

"Holy shit," Jackson said.

"Holy motherfucking shit on a shit burger," Rachel said.

The room below the mural was huge, cavernous. Their light was a tiny pinprick, but it reflected off dozens of surfaces, all polished to a half-shine. The walls were smooth, unbroken, as if they were made out of metal. The air inside the chamber was old and musty, but it was warm, and filled with the sense of electricity even more strongly than ever before. Every hair on Jackson's body stood up.

The stairs continued down in a thin path onto a small platform that rested in the center of the room. It glowed with a violet light that steeped the entire place dark purple. On the platform was a pedestal, and on the pedestal hovered a solid black box.

"...that box," Jackson said. "The mage had something like that."

"Magic," Rachel said. "Look! Over there!"

Jackson peered across the room. Far distant, he could see a light - the pale, washed-out light of the sun. A steep stair led to it from the opposite end of the central walkway. "That's our ticket out of here."

"Let's check out that thing first."

"Yeah. Be careful." Jackson glanced around. "And watch where you put your feet. I can't see the bottom."

Rachel skipped along the winding stairs without a care in the world - as if she hadn't just almost died, twice. "Agility, remember? I'm rocking it."

Jackson followed significantly more slowly. Rachel arrived at the platform first. When he got there, she was very still, staring at the box.

"So," Jackson said. "What do you think?"

"The mage used it to make that black oil, and to make the lightning. This is magic. Raw magic. Do you think the same box did both things, though? They were so different."

"Dunno." Jackson squinted at the box and nodded to himself. This was the other half of magic - Compulsion. Working with inanimate things, rather than living things. It must have something to do with Words. He reached out for it.

"Wait!" Rachel said. She smacked his hand away. "Let me."

"Rachel -"

"Don't Rachel me," she said. "You're the only one of us that can heal, right? I should take the risk. My health is doing pretty good. Worst case scenario, you can give me mouth-to-mouth again. Promise I won't tell your girlfriend."

Jackson sighed. "Alright. Go ahead."

Rachel grabbed the box and took off toward the exit at a sprint.

The pedestal started to soundlessly sink into the platform. "Uh, Rachel? Rachel!" Jackson started after her, but the path was very thin - nerve-rackingly thin. He'd put more points into Agility, but he wasn't nearly on her level. "Rachel, hang on! I can't go that fast!"

"Sorry, Jackson!" she shouted. "I need this thing! I'm leaving the party!"

Jackson heard a sort of chime play - the inverse of what he'd heard when she joined his party. Her face vanished from his HUD. "Rachel, just explain for a second! I'm a big kid, I can share!"

"It's not like that." She was already at the exit of the room. Her voice echoed back to him. "I can't talk about it. Good game, nice playing. Keep your two brain cells warm. See you later."

"Rachel! Rachel, wait!"

His voice echoed back to him. She was gone.

Jackson stopped, breathing. What the hell happened? Things were going pretty good there, at the end. He thought that they could work together. That he wasn't alone in all this.

And she left. Just like that. The air in the room was warm, but Jackson felt very cold.

"Storage protocol violated." A light, mechanical voice resounded in his ears. "Activating passive defense drone."

Something red flashed above Jackson's head.

###

When you see one of the cubes, you'll know. If it's within reach, secure it, and return to me as quickly as possible. Disobeying this order will result in...a very harsh punishment.