Nineteen

"Tell me, Heir to the World, do you have any regrets?"

"Yes."

"Tell me, Heir to the World, what would you give to undo your mistake?"

"I would give anything to turn back time."

"Tell me, Heir to the World, would you even betray the Inferno you love?"

"I would give anything to turn back time."

"Tell me, Heir to the World, do you deserve to live?"

"Yes."

---

"What are you doing here?"

"Breaking in," came the Joker's steady voice.

"Wh-what? What are you up to? And where's Mark?"

"Breaking in, same as you—"

"What nonsense," Gem laughed, "I am not here to break in!" The Joker rolled up one of his robe's gray sleeves, revealing a a hard leather glove that reached almost to his elbow, and pointed at the tools in Gem's hands. "Oh, these?" Gem asked as he looked down, noticing as if for the first time that he held a lock-picking set. "Eh..."

"To answer your other question, my partner is currently meeting his boss. Now, are you going to stare all day or will you put those things to work?"

Gem stood before the side door of one of the city's largest underground palaces. The crowds that flooded the streets of UnderMist did not reach this deep into the earth, and the small tunnel that branched off from the main road was empty save for Gem and the one he'd found fumbling with the doorknob: the Joker. So far the man had had no luck in gaining entry.

"Before I do, could you explain a few things to me, please?" Gem questioned with a sigh, dropping the tools into his belt pouch and tucking his thumbs into his belt.

"Sure, but I haven't got all night."

"First off, why are we not fighting?"

"What would be the point of that? Had I intended to kill the great-grandson of Gem al'Kondo I would have done it when we first met. Should you attack me, I will defend myself, but I have no desire for conflict."

"Does Kieku not want me dead?"

"I believe he does, from how he ordered Lopan to kill you, and how he began calling Voidfire in order to dispatch the Guardian Heir."

"But then, should you not—"

"Listen up, kid," the Joker said angrily, his voice carrying emotion for the first time in Gem's memory, "you're beginning to piss the Jikkuu out of me via dilution. No, not with your questions. With your stupidity, dammit! Now get this door open."

"Who is Mark's boss?"

"Mark's a Marauder, and the current leader is... let's see... Julien al'Donaan Tryn? Yeah. Lord Tryn." The Joker's tone still held a note of impatience.

<i>Wow</i>, thought Gem, <i>this guy's surprisingly open, and he's answering without hesitation. But more importantly, the Marauders? That thief, Mark, is one of them, and has a connection to Julien Tryn? How can I keep this hidden from Mana, that his older cousin is chief to one of Kieku's servants?</i>

"Anything else? If not, please, the door."

"Why can you not do it yourself?"

"I don't particularly feel like causing a ruckus with explosions, or anything," the Joker explained, shrugging slightly. "If you could gain us a less flashy entry, that would be great."

"Us?"

"Yes, kid, <i>us</i>. We are going to enter this building <i>together</i>."

"Why?"

"Why, kid, <i>why?</i> No more questions. Open the damn door." Reluctantly, Gem pulled his tools out of his pouch and bent down to examine the knob. "Gah, what a pushover. When you're done building yourself a brain, try to see about acquiring a spine, too."

"Listen, Luke," foamed Gem, standing and turning from the door, "either give me an explanation or don't talk at all."

"Concentrate on the brain part first," the Joker advised. Growling to himself, Gem returned to the task of opening the door. After a minute of fiddling with a variety of thin metal objects, the bounty hunter was rewarded with a minute clicking sound, and he carefully pulled the door open. It was heavy, being at least six inches of solid wood thick, and it creaked a little as it let in the underground street's torchlight. Ignoring the Joker, Gem crept inside the dark hallway and removed flint and tinder from his pouch to start a fire. Before he could so much as clink the two together, the hallway lit up. The Joker had stepped inside, a small warm flame dancing in his gloved hand. "Handy, isn't it?"

"Quiet." Gem turned back to the task of making fire.

"Don't bother, kid. I've got light enough for us both."

"I am not working with you," Gem muttered.

"Fortunately for you, I'm working with you," the Joker replied smugly. They strode down the narrow hallway together, Gem in embarrassed silence. The corridor, walled with brick and smelling of mold, shot off into the distant darkness with no doors leading off nor any guards in sight. The place was eerily isolated from the UnderMist the two had been in seconds before. "So, kid, my turn to ask questions. Apart from Fate, why are you here?"

Gem stopped dead in his tracks.

"Fate?"

"Well, you're clearly destined to come here, kid, since you're here... that part's really not interesting, which is why I asked 'apart from...'"

"I am not here because of Fate. I am here because I am a mercenary and an old bartender paid me good money to come. You are here for Kieku, are you not? Searching for the Crystals."

"You feel it, don't you? The power of Mana."

"Yeah."

"I'm not here for Kieku, kid," the Joker sighed. "Let's go find that treasure now." The cloaked figure walked away from Gem, heading further down the hallway. Gem remained where he was, listening to the sound of footsteps. "You can hear <i>that</i>, can't you? Hurry if you don't want them to catch us."

"Guards, and too close to run," Gem hissed, turning his back to the Joker and facing the darkness from which the two had walked. "Stay here, I could use your light."

"Right then." The Joker stopped walking and turned. "Let's see what you have for us."

Gem pulled two daggers out of his belt and readied himself. Within seconds, three burly men dressed in ring-mail and wielding sturdy axes charged out of the darkness. They came at the bounty hunter all at once, and he was barely able to dodge all of their attacks. He smiled as two of them ran past him. They intended to encircle him, and that would be just fine. Gem glanced around the hall and saw that the Joker was standing back calmly, seemingly disinterested in the fight.

"What're you doing in this mansion, thief? You're not from our circle. The master will want to have a good talk with your Architect as to what to do with your corpse!"

"I am not with the Underworld," Gem called back. This seemed to take the three by surprise.

"No one runs independent crime in this city," one of the guards shouted. "You're a pretty poorly informed tourist. Either that, or a pile of lying demon-shit. In this city, both die!" With this, the guards charged Gem once again, bearing their axes down upon him from three directions. Gem's grin widened. The harmless red sparks and flames of the Net burst into life around Gem and immediately died down. Gem still stood where he had been, the three guards charging him, his smile gone. He brought up his daggers to block two of the axes and stopped the third axe with a knee to the guard's arm. The guards, physically superior to him, pressed their attack, and Gem feared that his body would be crushed under the force.

Just as Gem felt his left arm starting to creak, the shadows of the hallway rippled and jumped into motion. Shapes and forms flickered across the walls, odd nightmarish creatures with red eyes and purple sneers. Lances of jet shot out of nowhere and pierced the bodies of the guards. Blood splattered Gem as he felt the pressure subside. The guards' armor had been completely ineffective, providing no obstacle to the shadow magic that had sought to penetrate its wearers' flesh.

With a wave of his hand, the Joker returned the brick walls to normal and the black lances retreated into the shadows. Gem watched in shock as the three guards collapsed to the floor, bloodied messes. 

"You are..."

"The secret is out, I suppose," the Joker sighed, releasing the gold clasp at his neck and letting his brown cloak fall to the floor. Before Gem's eyes, his gray robes seemed to grow ragged and the darkness of his cowl became solid. Twin red lights glowed like embers in that darkness, the eyes of a demon. "That was the Taint."

"Tainted Jikkuu," Gem murmured. "You are a Ly'ban."

"Indeed," the Joker replied, looking about. "Though when compared to Lopan I don't look it. He was the strongest of our litter; I was the runt."

"This whole time—"

"The guise of a Jikkuu mage suits me better than that of a demon, and I believe that goes for the rest of this city. Even Mark doesn't know that I'm a Ly'ban. Tell me—when I worked the mansions of lords with Mark, what do you think would have happened if I had let on to being a Ly'ban?"

"Mist would have died." Gem bit his lip. This man wasn't a man at all, but a demon, one of the sons of Maha, a Ly'ban! He was Ji'Lopan's brother. Brothers with that... with that... demon!

"I see you're finally using your head, kid. Now, would you like to explain that unseemly performance to me? You told me before that you were the Roof-runner of Verga City. I would expect a better fight from you."

"Something went wrong," Gem said, his tone admitting some of the confusion he felt. "The Net. There was something wrong with the Net. I couldn't enter it."

"Oh? That's interesting," the Ly'ban said, gathering up its cloak and donning it. "The Net, eh. That's quite interesting. Well, don't count on it in future battles, then."

"I hope there aren't more like them," sighed Gem. "Their fighting was unrefined, but they were strong."

"It's alright, I suppose. <i>I'm</i> not about to let you die."

"That's reassuring, coming from one of Kieku's servants," Gem scoffed.

"He still hasn't gotten it!" the Joker nearly cried out in frustration, but quickly fell in behind Gem, who had already taken off down the hall once again. The two plodded along in the Joker's firelight. After another five minutes of walking without incident, they came to a heavy metal door. Beyond it, the bounty hunter could hear voices.

"Can you make out what they are saying, Luke?" he asked the Joker.

"It's indecipherable, kid. They're drunk full of wine in there."

"That should make things easier for me," Gem smiled as he turned the doorknob. It clicked easily and the door swung inward without resistance. It hadn't even been locked. The room beyond was well-lit by a cluster of chandeliers suspended from the center of the circular ceiling. Spaced evenly around the room were seven alcoves, each containing a wooden chest and piles of gold coins. Five hearty men, wearing the same ring-mail as the guards encountered earlier, sat around a stone table beneath the chandeliers. Discarded on the floor around them were scraps of food and now-empty bottles of cheap Vergan wine. The guards were so immersed in their drink and talk that they didn't notice the door open or Gem walk in.

"This would be the treasure room," the Joker confirmed, eyeing a map that he had pulled from his sleeve.

"Shhh!" Gem hissed.

"It's fine, it's fine. They wouldn't notice you even if you stuck a dagger through them."

"Where did you get that map, anyway?" the bounty hunter whispered.

"Mark made it when we performed here a couple months ago. Speaking of killing them, care to get on it?"

"I might be able to just recover my prize without hurting them, though, if they are this oblivious," Gem mused, stroking his chin.

"What exactly are you looking for, kid?" The Joker waved one gloved hand and, with a small popping noise, the lids of all the chests in the room burst open. "A-ha! there's the Crystal over there." There it lay, two alcoves counter-clockwise around the room, glowing a deep blue in its container. 

"And there is what I am looking for." Gem pointed at the alcove two clockwise from where they stood. "The bartender told me that it was a memory of his daughter. Apparently, she wore it before the Underworld took it—and her—for money." A necklace of tiny silver links rested on a velvet cushion, looking entirely out of place in the dank cellar-turned-treasury. Gem took one step in the direction of what he sought, and then stopped as the Joker raised both arms.

"I'm sorry to do this to you, Gem," the Ly'ban murmured, saying the bounty hunter's name for the first time. "But right now, you need to make a choice." Curling in his ring and little fingers, the joker pointed at the two chests, the ones that held the necklace and the Crystal of Mana, and dark spheres of shadow began to form at his fingertips. "Fate demands this." With a deafening bang, the Joker staggered back into the doorway. Gem watched as the spheres shot towards the two chests, lengthening and becoming spears as they flew.

"Dammit, Luke," he cursed. He took another step towards the necklace, everything in his perception slowing down. Those black lances barely budged as his mind raced. He needed to get the necklace. He couldn't betray the bartender's trust. A mercenary's life becomes meaningless once he abandons a paying customer. Gem then remembered his words from the day before. <i>"I take this oath once more. I will do anything for you."</i> Biting his lip so as to not scream out, he shut his eyes and turned around. "Sorry, old man."

Gem dashed for the Crystal, crushing a bottle underfoot and ducking under the dazed punch of a very confused guard. The bounty hunter plucked the Crystal from its bed, narrowly evading the Joker's black magic. As he took it in his hands, he felt its power surge through him. This was the power of Mana, the power granted him by the great father, the Creator, Bane. There was no mistaking this feeling. It was the same as back in the Ebony Fields Hill Shrine when the Broken Angel had given him A'xia. The lances of Tainted Jikkuu hit the cellar walls and both alcoves exploded.

"Aqua," Gem murmured as he clutched the artifact to his chest, shielding it from the flying chunks of masonry. He braced himself for the impact of stones pelting him, but nothing made contact. Looking back, he saw between himself and the alcove a wall of solidified shadow against which was piled up an assortment of stone and brick, and heard the words of Ji'Lopan echoing in his head, <i>"Fate won't let you die."</i> 

"It seems that Fate is not done with me," Gem observed as the five guards advanced towards him, all bearing looks of confusion. "If you do not want it to finish you, please stand down."

"What're you babbling about, thief?" one of them asked gruffly. "You think you can bust into the Third's treasury like this? You're going to die now." He reached out a big hand to grab Gem and then gurgled as a beam of darkness transfixed him. Within seconds, the guards were turned to piles of clothing and blood. The Joker rubbed his hands together expectantly in the doorway.

"You want my thanks?" Gem asked. "Go back to the Inferno, Luke."

"You made a good choice," the Joker commended cheerfully. "Welcome back to this world, Legend."

"Very funny," Gem spat. "I did what I needed to do. Mana needs these Crystals. My loyalty goes to my family first."

"To a distant cousin you only met four days ago?" the Joker inquired with a sly tone. "Or perhaps... to a beloved younger brother?"

"Why are you doing this?" Gem asked. "We need to get out of here. You heard that man, right? This is the palace of the Third Architect of the Underworld. If we get caught, we will never be safe in this city again."

"I'm alright with leaving now. You have what you came for, after all." The Joker laughed lightly at Gem's protests. "But will we really be caught?"

"Would you kill the Third himself?"

"If it comes down to it, yes," the Joker stated.

"What kind of person is he?" Gem asked he stepped out of the room, dropping the Crystal into his pouch. "You said you performed here?"

"Oh. When I performed here, this was the palace of the Second Architect." The Joker followed, lighting the passage once more with a flame of Jikkuu. "Since, a new building was raised for the First, and everyone in the organization moved up. I heard that the current Third is new to this city, though. The old Second, the one I performed for, was killed about a month ago, and the Third of the time took his place. Ahh, Underworld politics are complicated... long story short, I don't know the master of this palace. He's only been here for two weeks, maybe."

"Only two weeks?"

They walked on in silence for a dozen or so minutes, making their way back to the side door through which they'd entered. They reached it without trouble and stepped outside, back into the torch-lit streets of UnderMist. The relatively fresh air of the alley was refreshing to Gem after the dank hall. Stretching, he remarked that the Ly'ban was still standing there by his side.

"You plan to hang around, or something?" Gem asked. "What, do you think I am just going to hand over the Crystal? If I say 'over my dead body,' after doing so much to keep me alive, are you going to kill me for it?"

"Tell me, kid," the Joker replied, "Do you actually think that I'm working with Kieku?"