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It lasted only a moment in that space with sand pillars. For Mista it seemed to last a lifetime. He couldn’t tell, his eyes fixed on the spot where your face had been. His heart thumping loudly, the blood rushing to his ears, chest swelling with an excruciating cacophony of anguish and euphoria...
It had been one moment and then… and then...
Mista scrambled for the edge the moment he could move. His feet heavy, his arms swinging clumsily against his sides. Fuck, fuck. This couldn’t be happening, he thought desperately, his mind derailing at a million miles per minute. This was not happening. He couldn’t bear to believe it. He wouldn’t dare to believe it, that you did it, that you could be so stupid-
He looked over the edge of the cliff.
You were there at the bottom, three hundred feet down.
You were dead.
---
Six hours earlier.
“Miiiiistaaaa! Miiiiistaaaa! No.3 stole my slice, waaaaaaah!”
“No.3, stop that already. Give it back.” Mista sighed, not in the mood for the antics of his Pistols.
“Aww, come here, No.5. Here’s another.” You held out the extra slice of salame for the little yellow Stand to have.
No.5 brightened up at once at the sight of the delicious meatiness, taking it joyfully. “Thank you so much, Gumi! You’re so nice!”
“You’re welcome!” you beamed back, happy you could cheer up the adorable Stand.
You turned to the user and your partner, Mista, his brow area pouring with sweat. “Someone’s grouchy,” you commented in jest.
Mista threw himself down onto his back, spreading his arms and legs out wide to welcome as much air as possible to all his sweaty surfaces. Not that it did much in the humid climate. It was a very hot day in Egypt and the extreme midday heat was getting to him even through the shade and cover of your sand-coloured sheet. “I haaaaate the heat,” he grumbled miserably, closing his eyes in self-pitying defeat.
You chuckled softly at him and smiled. You had been with him in Passione together with the others in Bruno’s team. All the jobs, the adventures, the plotting, the backstabbing, the betrayal, the money, the blood, the deaths, the sorrows… All those terrible and adventurous moments endured and suffered together. But there had also been many good times too. Throughout it all, you became close with the team. You were all friends who had each other’s backs. Especially Mista. He was special to you. You couldn’t say when you had fallen for him but you knew that whenever you looked at him in moments of peace and stillness, such as now, lying on the sand together, your heart would unfurl in tenderness. He was being so careless right now, leaving himself so open, his lips parted for steady breaths. You thought about claiming them with your own many times… but he didn’t know how you felt. You didn’t know how he felt either. Besides, you two were in dangerous situations every other day. There were simply too many inopportune moments.
And right now, you had a job to do. You packed your feelings away to get back into business mode.
Five hundred feet away stood a huge and weathered pyramid looming against a backdrop of shimmering sand dunes. You and Mista had been sent by Don Giorno to fetch the Stand Arrow housed within. There were more than one of these Arrows scattered around the world, which you had been working together to excavate and retrieve, lest they should fall into the wrong hands. The pyramid one had a special legend. The Arrow was said to be the very first prototype of the others. It held immense yet unstable powers, and as if a testament to that very myth, many booby traps were placed within to deter would-be treasure hunters.
The entrance opened around noon on this day every year. You watched with a pair of binoculars as two figures made their way to the pyramid, followed by a snake-looking Stand… As soon as they disappeared into the entrance, only the snake Stand came back out, covered in blood and with the head of one of those people impaled on its fangs. The Stand tossed the head aside and slithered away, vanishing with the sand.
You continued to watch as others began approaching the pyramid.
“How’s it looking?” Mista asked, still semi-knocked out from the heat.
“I count eight bodies but there might be more,” you replied. “I can’t spot the owner of the Snake Stand. They may be a long distance user.”
Mista hummed then went back to recuperating, an unrumpled leaflet covering his eyes.
You casually observed as the eight bodies fought it out in the middle of the desert in an all-out melee, with a ninth figure joining the fray soon after. Stands versus Stands, guns vs guns, knives vs knives, fists vs fists. At one point there was even a helicopter rattling above with machine guns and you pulled the camouflage cover down further to obscure the view of your head. You thought the helicopter would be the clear victor but a Dragon Stand shot its way up and punched it once into obliteration. The chopper exploded in spectacular fashion, the smoking debris raining down over the others on the ground. Well, there went your hypothetical betting money.
The more you watched the more it became clear this Dragon Stand was super OP. You and Mista did not have the manpower to be able to take it head on. It seemed to have no weaknesses, having huge explosive power, a range limit reaching the skies and even a speed quick enough to go from the chopper back down to ground level in a flash to defend the user from oncoming attacks. Even the user, a large cloaked figure, proved capable in physical combat themselves, breaking people’s arms and punching the daylights out of them. They would clearly cause you the most problems.
“It’s best if we avoid any encounters with that user,” Mista determined from what you reported.
“How? There’s only one entrance into the pyramid.”
Mista rolled onto his front, “Let’s go now whilst everyone is distracted.”
“Now?? We’ll get spotted!”
Mista pulled out a smoke gun and waved it with a grin. “That’s where these babies come in.”
The two of you scuttled round to the closest sand dune to the pyramid. From here, it would be a three hundred metre sprint to the entrance. The people fighting were a lot closer now, and their number had grown. You and Mista affixed your gas masks. You did a once-over check on yourself for all your items, including your journal.
“Ready? Three. Two. One. Go!”
You both shot out of the cover at once. Mista aimed his smoke gun at the ongoing melee and fired two canisters. They flew in the middle of the battle with the help of the Pistols and landed in the sand, causing some confusion among the brawlers. Then they exploded, a plethora of gas and smoke shrouding the fighters, causing them to choke and fall to the ground.
On your side, you knew the Snake Stand would be coming for you as soon as you heard its hissing from behind. You spun round at the last moment, calling upon your Stand, Blank Marquee to protect you. Blank Marquee’s hand appeared right in front of your face, just as the Snake Stand’s fangs lunged within centimetres of you, freezing it in mid-air. The serpentine body dropped to the sand, unable to move. Mista pointed his gun at it and shot it through the head.
With all possible opposition stalled, you and Mista dashed all the way and made it inside the pyramid’s entrance, safe and sound. You took off your gas masks and caught your breaths.
“Woo!! Shade, at last!!!” Mista cried out with glee, throwing his arms up in the air. He went over to embrace the cool stone wall and sighed in contented bliss.
“Quiet,” you shushed him, looking around everywhere, “you don’t know if anyone else is around here.”
The two bodies which had been massacred by the Snake Stand earlier were there, tossed to the side covered in a puddle of blood. It was dark in here, even with the light from the outside coming in. The light stopped about several feet in with the rest enveloped in darkness. You took out a torch from your waist pack to have a look round. The two of you were in a contained space built of ochre-coloured stone. Fortunately, it seemed this area was free from dangers. There were two passages, one straight ahead and one to the left.
“So, which way do we go?” said Mista, looking from one to the other.
You got out your journal from your leg strap. The leatherbound book contained your notes about various Arrows and their locations. For this Arrow, you had copied down inscriptions from an ancient tome which one of Trish’s men had unearthed. Flipping through your scribbled notes, you found what you were looking for. “If we take the left passage, that’s where the booby traps are with the Arrow at the end. If we take the other, it’s a labyrinth to the Arrow.”
“What, no booby traps in the labyrinth?”
“As far as I’ve written, nope. But it’s a lot longer to go through than taking the booby traps route.”
“Hmmmmm.” Mista pondered for a short moment, before exclaiming, “Let’s take the booby trap route.”
“Ummmm,” you threw a suspect look at him, “you do know these booby traps can kill you every which-way, right?”
“Yeah, but it’ll be faster. We gotta get to the Arrow before anyone else.”
“Well, yeah, but we have to make it back out alive too, remember?”
“We’ll be fiiiiine,” Mista waved a hand dismissively. “We’re used to dodging shit like this all the time.”
Humming in doubt, you went over to the passageway straight ahead to have a look.
The moment you reached the passageway arc, the lights came on one after the other in a consecutive row leading down to the end. Your mouth fell open. You couldn’t believe it. The passage led straight to the Arrow at the end atop of some stairs, a mysterious light shining upon it. You checked back in your notes again. It definitely said labyrinth. But up there was a straight and direct path. Hmmmm. Kinda sus…
“Woah,” Mista ogled down the passage from behind you. “It’s the Arrow!”
“I dunno. Something about this doesn’t seem right. My notes say this should lead to the labyrinth-”
“But it’s right there! Let’s a-go-”
“No, Mista-! Wait-!”
Mista dove into the passage, all gung-ho and enthusiastic, as you scrambled after him, cursing to yourself. You ran forward with Mista ahead of you towards the Arrow. You made it part way down before Mista’s foot landed on a certain tile - the entire floor opened up beneath and down you both fell into the dark depths.
…
When you came to, you found yourself on a bed of sand. You sat up slowly and looked around. It seemed you were in some crypt of sorts. You spotted Mista a few feet away and went over. “Mista, wake up,” you shook him.
Mista scrunched his eyes open and saw you. “Hey, is that an angel I’m seeing?” he half-smiled in dreamy fashion.
You rolled your eyes, too used to his cheesy chat up lines. At least this meant he was okay. “Whatever. Get up. We need to figure out where we are.”
You found your journal at the end of the sand bed and picked it up to consult. Sadly, the information that you had wasn’t very much. There was nothing mentioned about a trap door. Perhaps they had omitted some details to throw off would-be pursuers. Indeed, as you looked around, a few skeletons could be spotted here and there where the unfortunate souls had met their end. Mista gave a shudder at the sight, not being a fan of the bony fiends. Your eyes searched around the place. Curiously enough, the place was well lit with fire torches hanging around the walls. You wondered how they were lit. Did someone maintain this place?
“Hey, what’s that over there?” Mista pointed at a wall at the far end. There was a large carving of an intricate symbol, symmetrical on both sides. You recognised it and looked back at your journal. You had drawn the same symbol in a corner. Except your drawn symbol had the middle element coloured in red.
You got up and jogged over to the large symbol, with Mista telling you to wait up as he caught up behind you. Once at the symbol, you pressed with your hand on the middle notch. It clicked. The wall started juddering. The symbol separated in half as the wall parted in two to reveal another passageway. The two walls came to a stop at either side with a thump, sending dust to fall and settle on the ground. The new passageway was also well lit with torches, lighting up a couple of turns around corners. You looked down at your journal. The diagram you had drawn matched up with what was in front of you. This was the labyrinth.
“Let’s go. I know the way,” you said, as the red line on your diagram indicated the correct path throughout.
“Are you sure about this?” Mista asked, looking about the place while holding his arms. “What if we fall down another trap door?”
“Oh, now you’re worried about that?” you raised an eyebrow at him.
“Hey, as the saying goes, once bitten twice shy,” Mista threw his hands up in surrender.
You glowered at him. It was just like him to charge into something without a second thought. You would lecture him for the 1000th time over this later once everything was done. “Stop trying to get us killed. That is an order.”
You turned back to plotting out the correct way through the labyrinth as Mista grumbled his apologies sheepishly.
After what seemed like the 10th turn in the labyrinth, the Pistols’ voices piped up.
“Miiiiistaaaa!”
“Miiiiistaaaa! Guuuuumiiiiiii!”
“I’m hungryyyy! Miiiiistaaaa! Guuuuumiiiiiii!”
Mista sighed. “Guys, it’s not even been an hour.”
“That’s not trueeee! It’s been nearly three hooours!”
You checked your watch. The Pistols were right. Dang. “We were knocked out for quite a while, huh.”
“More like, this labyrinth is taking forever. How much more have we gotta go?” Mista looked over at your journal.
“We’re a quarter of the way through, I think.”
Mista groaned. The Pistols started whining again so he took out the salame from his pouch and began slicing with his pen knife.
Suddenly there was a creak. You and Mista stopped walking and listened. The creaking continued, rattling into something continuous. You strained your ears to listen harder. You could hear something like gears turning.
“Is something going to happen?” Mista was on his guard with his pistol out.
You also called upon Blank Marquee. “Did you step on something?”
“Not this time! Or, maybe...”
You glared at him as his foot was currently on top of a depressed tile.
Without warning, the walls on either side flipped open to reveal-
“DUCK!”
You and Mista dropped to the floor as… a bunch of ducks with sharp beaks came shooting out from one side to the other like spears. Suddenly the air was filled with a lot of quacking, honking and feathers.
“What- What is going on?!”
“How should I know?!”
“You’re the one that shouted duck!!”
“I meant duck as in get down! I didn’t think there would literally be ducks in the walls!!”
Some of the ducks finally noticed you and changed direction, aiming their pointed beaks directly at you- You froze them all in a flash with Blank Marquee. Their bodies thudded to the ground with soft plumps.
“Phew-y! Am I glad Blank Marquee is around~”
“A-hem.”
“Oh- and I’m also glad that you’re around too, Gumi!”
“Hmph.”
“Hey…”
You and Mista got going before the killer ducks unfroze and came for your heads again.
“I thought you said there were no booby traps in the labyrinth.”
“That’s what I thought too. Maybe there was a mistake in translation or something.”
Or it could have been very intentional.
Not even three steps around the next turn and Mista’s foot stepped on another tile. There came a rumbling from behind, and a wall opened up to reveal a massive boulder tumbling your way. The two of you pegged it down the passage, screaming your entire lungs out.
“I thought this stuff only happened in movies?!?” Mista yelled hysterically.
“Side passage!!! Find a side passage!!!” You kept your eyes peeled for any diverging paths but there were none. Suddenly there was a dead end and you splatted yourselves onto it. You cursed frantically, your hands going here and there trying to find anything, any form of escape-
“Mista, do something!!!” You pinned your back to the wall as the boulder came careening ever closer.
“You’re the one with Blank Marquee!!!”
“Blank Marquee only works on organic creatures!!!”
“Fuuuuuuck!!!!” Mista took out his pistol and fired one round-
The boulder popped like a balloon… And out of it came hundreds and hundreds of-
“KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-!!!!!!!!!”
“FSLDKDSKLF- GUMI GET OFF I CAN’T SEE I CAN’T SEE-!!!!!!!”
You dove onto Mista’s head and shoulders, clutching onto him with all your might like a frightened cat. There, below on the ground, was a swarm of horrible, nasty, revolting black beetles scuttling their disgusting, loathsome little legs about here, there, everywhere-
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKLSEJT- I CAN FEEL THEM ON MY FEET-!!!!” Mista screamed and walloped, kicking the beetles away and legging it back down the passage, unable to see where he was going thanks to you.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAA MISTA STOP- IT’S THAT WAY! OH MY GOD-”
“WHAT WAY??? I CAN’T SEE-”
“BACK BACK BACK- LEFT LEFT LEFT- THE OTHER WAY HURRY FASTER FASTER-”
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA…”
It took some time but you and Mista were finally five turns away, on the floor, catching your breaths, you having detached from Mista’s head at last so you could lie on the floor and die.
“Ma… Man-eating beetles…” you wheezed, shivering in fright.
“That’s… a thing… of movies…” Mista puffed, desperately trying to convince himself of his own words.
You both just really hated bugs.
Some moments later, you came upon another trap door leading to a lake full of crocodiles. Mista had yet again pressed on some tile.
“For the love of- Can you please stop doing that?!?”
“How should I know that would happen??? I just wanted to lean against the wall and rest!!”
You wanted to tear your hair out. “Urgh- Okay, whatever- Just help me up, will ya?”
Thanks to Blank Marquee, you were able to freeze the crocodiles and were currently standing on the head of one as Mista reached his hand out for you to grab. He pulled you up to the edge so you could climb out.
It started to dawn on you that maybe, both of those passageways at the start would have led to this same place regardless - both led to a labyrinth combined with the booby traps. Either the translation was inaccurate or it was mistranslated on purpose. In any case, you looked at your watch. Another hour had gone by. This labyrinth was taking too long. You started to worry that the others from outside the pyramid would soon catch up.
“Even if they did make it down here, they would still be miles behind,” said Mista. He looked back down at the frozen crocodiles, which would become unfrozen once you were far enough away. Their heads were much larger than their bodies. “I’m wondering about all these animals in this labyrinth. Don’t they seem a bit odd to you?”
You were about to agree when another thought hit you. What were these animals doing here in such an old and barren place? How were they kept alive? Surely, there was nothing to eat down here… unless it was the flesh of unfortunate trespassers.
Before you could pursue that morbid thought further, there was a rumbling in the distance.
“Do you hear that?” you asked. You pressed your ear against the wall, careful to not touch anything that could sink in and activate another trap. Mista did the same thing next to you and you both looked at each other intently. You asked him if he had touched anything just now and he denied it, honest to God. You carried on listening… listening…
After some time you ears managed to catch onto the faintest sounds of something. A barrelling noise, a hollering voice...
“........ora ora ora ora ora ora ora ora ora ora ora ora ora ora ora ora ora-”
It was getting louder. It was approaching.
“Get back,” Mista voiced your thought and you both ran and hid behind a corner.
You waited as the chorus of ‘ora’s grew louder and louder along with the vibrations of the rumbling getting stronger and stronger that they could be felt along the floor. You wondered with increasing trepidation what it could be. Had either of you unwittingly set off another trap without realising? You turned your mind over every path you went down so far. It wasn’t possible, unless you had missed something. No. This had to be something else entirely. Something that neither of you were equipped for.
Up ahead, the wall exploded and shattered into jagged stone bricks, debris and dust smashing out into the passageway. You and Mista instinctively ducked behind your corner out of sight before peering slowly round again.
A figure stepped through the smashed hole in the wall, shrouded by the plume of dust. The dust cleared a little around the figure’s head - you recognised him as the user of the Dragon Stand. You gripped Mista’s arm. He turned to you and mouthed the words, ‘Dragon Stand?’ to which you nodded your head.
The cloaked figure took off his hood to reveal a man in his late-20s or early-30s with a white cap on which seemed to merge with his dark hair. Odd, but putting that aside. A purple figure with dark hair emerged beside him, levitating above the ground. You frowned. This wasn’t the Dragon Stand you had seen before, though their colour schemes were somewhat similar. This Stand right here was humanoid instead. It looked like a gladiator with shoulder pads and arm and leg gauntlets covering its sculpted muscles.
Mista signalled for you to take a step back and then signed to you, ‘Looks like OP Stand user woke up. What do we do?’
You peered ever so carefully back around, making the least noise possible. The user and his purple Stand walked further down before the latter let the wall have it with a barrage of more punches and more ‘ora’s. You signed back to Mista, ‘We should follow him.’
‘What?’
‘I think he’s taking a shortcut. Let’s go.’
‘Ah, fuck it-’
The two of you followed at a safe distance, far enough to keep from being noticed and close enough to tail him throughout. Your hunch was right. You passed through wall after wall. You were following the labyrinth diagram in your journal. Each wall bypass was taking you one step closer towards the Arrow.
It took you no time at all to reach the final stage. It was the brightest area of the labyrinth out of all. Sand pillars adorned along the sides of the large and tall cavern. The Arrow could be seen at the end on an elevated platform. A stairway led up to it over a gaping chasm.
The man with the white cap started to approach it. You and Mista hid before the entrance and hatched a plan. Mista would distract the man and you would sneak up behind and use Blank Marquee on him.
You were about to execute your plan when suddenly there was a voice,
“I know you’re there. Come out.”
Oh shoot. That was the guy. He knew you were there-
Mista gave you one look before surrendering himself, coming out from his corner with his hands held up in the air.
“Alright. Looks like you got me,” he chuckled lightheartedly. He took a few more steps and stopped a short distance before the white cap man. “Hey, listen, I don’t mean no harm, okay. I’m just a thrill seeker who got lost in this labyrinth. And then you showed up! You’re practically my hero!” He started walking round the side of the man, making him turn his gaze away from the entrance. “Boy, was I glad to see you! I thought I would starve to death down here, trapped forever, never getting to taste another slice of pizza. Oh, man, that would be so sad. But, man, your punches though! They are so powerful! How much do you train-”
“Stop right there,” the man commanded with a deep voice.
“Woah, okay, take it easy there, fella. I don’t mean no disrespect,” Mista chuckled again nervously but he did as he was told and stopped.
The guy now had his back turned to the entrance. This was the moment.
Mista began chatting some more, making up stories about his backpacking days across Europe. It was a minor talent of his. He figured he could have been an author if he hadn’t joined Passione. Maybe he still could, in fact, once this trip was over. He did fancy being something of a travel journalist. He could write about his adventure in Egypt and other places where he had retrieved the Arrows with you. Yeah, he could absolutely do that! He was a natural with making things up on the spot.
Then there was you, who specialised in a different kind of creativity.
“PEDROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!”
You came barrelling down the passageway, your eyes wet with tears. You tripped over a rock on your way into the cavern, which had actually been an accident, but which lended itself most conveniently to your act. You got up sniffling and sobbing, your knees grazed and your hair messed up, letting your crocodile tears run down your cheeks. “Pedro!! Why did you leave me behind?!”
You sobbed on the floor. Mista could only look on in surprise. The guy too regarded you with some inquisitiveness.
“Pedro!! You’re so mean!! Even after I told you I love you!!!” You sat there sobbing some more, wiping your eyes with your dirty hands.
Holy shit, thought Mista. He almost broke out of his own charade because of your words. This wasn’t discussed as part of the plan but he knew that you were always a good improviser. And your fake tears were some of the best he’d seen. Despite knowing you were faking it, part of his heart couldn’t help but clench at the sight.
Suddenly, you shuffled over to the white cap man and clung onto his trousers. “Who is this man?! Why are you with him?? Is he your new lover?!?”
“What?!?” Mista spluttered genuinely.
“Tell me, Pedro!!! Is he?! Is that why you ran off after I confessed?! Were you always going to meet him?! Do you love him more than me?!?-”
“Maria, what the fuck?!” Mista joined in at last, acting exasperated, “I told you not to follow me, didn’t I??”
“No!! You’re the only one for me, Pedro!!!”
You suddenly leapt up and clutched tight around the man’s abdomen. “It’s that stupid arrow you want, isn’t it?! Just go and get it then!!” you wailed bitterly.
“Heh, thanks, Maria,” Mista smirked as he turned tail to go towards the stairs. “I owe ya one!”
The man reached his hand out, his purple Stand appearing with the intent to stop Mista -
He froze.
You got up from the ground and dusted yourself off as Mista came back towards you, applauding. “A fine show there, ‘Miss Maria’,” he said with a devilish grin.
“Couldn’t have done it without you, ‘Mr Pedro’,” you returned a cheeky wink. You walked up to the frozen man. He was in fact really tall and well built. Boy, you would have been easily pummelled to death if he had seen through your act. You reached on your tiptoes and blew on his eyelashes - he did not blink nor react in any way, meaning he was well and truly frozen instead of pretending to be.
“Okay, step aside,” said Mista as he aimed his gun at the man.
He popped three rounds into the man’s torso. The bullet wounds went in deep, blood oozing out and staining the man’s white shirt crimson.
“Why didn’t you tap him in the head?” you asked.
“Eh, he’s as good as dead this way too,” said Mista, sheathing his gun in his trousers.
He kicked the man from behind the knee. It didn’t do anything since he was in a frozen state, but he would fall face first to the ground the moment you released your Stand’s power. You kept him frozen for the time being; it posed less risk this way.
Satisfied with your work, you both turned your attention to the Arrow at the top of the stairs. There was some kind of glass barrier around it. Mista took out his gun again and fired a shot. It ricocheted back, zooming over his head. The barrier was left unscathed in any way, not even a scratch. Mista tried firing more bullets but they all led to the same non-result.
“Damn. What do we do now?”
You turned to your journal once more. Two words were written in your notes about the Arrow - sacrifice rock.
You looked around and found a rock with some carvings near the stairs. You went back down.
“Man, why a rock, I hate rocks,” Mista muttered under his breath. Then to you, “What does it say?”
Your finger traced over the ancient characters from right to left,
“A great Power
One cannot cultivate
Without a great Sacrifice.
Just as the Arrow’s birth
bathed in blood
You too shall sacrifice all but one to receive its power
in Honour
and in Atonement.”
There came a heavy and resounding thunk from behind. You turned your head to discover the entrance to the cavern had been blocked by a huge slab of stone.
“Sooo what this rock is saying is we need to sacrifice someone?” Mista frowned. He gestured over at the man with the white cap. “Doesn’t he count as a sacrifice?”
You repeated the words, “all but one,” under your breath. You looked from the man to the blocked entrance to Mista to your own hands. “I think,” you tried to pick your words carefully, though it was ultimately futile, “we have to sacrifice one of us too for the other to get the Arrow.”
Mista wheeled on you, his eyes hard, “Are you crazy?! No. No way. We are not doing that. Let’s just go back and figure something else out.”
You looked back again at the blocked entrance. “Somehow I don’t think it will let us out until someone grabs the Arrow.”
“Screw that! C’mon, let’s try and find another way out.”
You and Mista split up to search the large cavern. You were distantly aware of Mista’s growing agitation, as he searched high and low on his side of the area for something, anything, anything at all to go against the accursed rock’s words. Meanwhile, as you got on with your own examination on your side, the cogs of your mind began turning…
The two of you could find no alternative escapes. Mista even tried shooting at the stone slab in the hopes that it would pop like that boulder balloon but to no avail. He kicked at the slab angrily, hurting his own foot and cursing.
“Mista…” Your work facade slipped. It hurt you to see Mista like this. You knew what he had gone through before, what the two of you and the others in the gang had gone through before. You placed a gentle hand on Mista’s heaving body, “Mista, it’s okay. We’ll find a way out of this. In fact, I’ve got an idea-”
Mista pivoted round to face the stairs at the edge of the chasm. He ran over to the edge. You chased after him. He peered over the edge to find a drop that was about three hundred feet down to the ground below.
“Okay.” He stood up, taking several steps back. “Okay,” he said again. He took a deep breath in, then a deep breath out, steeling his nerves. “If anyone’s going to sacrifice themselves,” he took off at a sprint, “then it should be me!-”
“Mista! Stop!-” You collided into him forcefully, knocking you both to the ground. You ended up in a scuffle with him as he fought to get back up and reach the edge. “Mista! Will you stop-! Mista, just listen to me-!”
“Don’t try and stop me, Gumi! I have to be the one to do it-!”
“No, you don’t!”
“Yes, I do!”
“No, you don’t!”
“Yes, I do!”
“No, you don’t-!”
“GUMI!” Mista grabbed you by the shoulders. His eyes fixed on you with glaring ferocity. They were angry, they were lucid… and underneath those, they were a deepening, suffocating sea of sorrow. “After everything… everything we’ve been through, I feel… If it has to be between you or me, then it has to be me because I can’t lose you too. I can’t be responsible for losing you as well-”
“Mista, you idiot,” you hissed between your teeth. You couldn’t stop the tears from welling up. “After all this time, how can you still blame yourself for…” It was still too painful to speak of the deaths of your friends. You knew Mista blamed himself for their deaths. Your voice shuddered. You took in a deep breath to steady yourself and threw a hardened glance at Mista. “If you think throwing yourself off would be some kind of atonement then you’re wrong-”
“You don’t get to make that decision for me,” said Mista harshly. “These are my feelings and they are the result of my actions. I’m sorry, Gumi, but nothing you say or do will ever change that. I have to own up to this.”
You were both at an impasse, glaring at each other until one of you yielded. You cursed in your head. Mista could be so damn stubborn. It was evident that no matter what you said you could never change his mind. In that case…
You finally yielded. “Okay, listen. I have an idea.” You told Mista the plan you had come up with as you were searching for alternative exits, making slight adjustments to the original conception for your own sake. All the while your heart was thumping hard.
“So after I jump, you’re going to bring me back,” Mista surmised.
You nodded your head. “How does that sound? If you’re not going to budge on your decision, and it’s not like I’m gonna let you die either. No way in hell. This works out for the both of us, doesn’t it?”
Mista pondered over it for a moment. Then he stood back up. You stood back up along with him. “Okay,” he breathed, closing his eyes. He took in another deep inhale, this time breathing in longer and more measuredly. He breathed a long, slow exhale out, counting up to six. He grabbed your shoulders once again, fixing you with a hard stare. “Just in case anything goes pear-shaped...”
He leaned his head forward.
His lips met yours. Your eyelids fluttered shut. You exhaled, melting into his touch. The kiss was neither hard nor soft. It was somewhere in between those. Somewhere between cherishing and hunger, between certainty and uncertainty, between the very bottom of the deepest chasm and the very top of the highest mountain. It floated aimlessly with the dusty air of the cavern, hanging in freefall, suspended in between gravity and non-gravity. It was everything you had dreamed it would be, and more. His lips were so soft, his touch so gentle. You had imagined this moment many, many times but never had there been an opportune moment.
Until now. That was why…
You parted from Mista and looked into his eyes, misty with love and adoration. You were so happy to see them one last time.
You froze Mista.
“I’m happy I got to share my first kiss with you.”
Blank Marquee came round to your side as you stepped away towards the edge. You kept your eyes on Mista. Sweat started beading out on his face. Though he was as still as a statue, you could tell he was struggling to break free, to fight against what you had done and what you were going to do. You felt bad about tricking him. You never intended to have him jump. You pretended to go along with him in order to catch him off guard at the very last moment. Just in case the idea didn’t work out, you’d rather take the fall yourself instead of him. It was a completely selfish reason. You hoped he would forgive you for it.
You stood at the edge, looking back at Mista one last time. Blank Marquee shimmered beside you.
“I’m sorry, Mista. I love you.”
You fell backwards off the edge.
It had lasted only a moment. Mista’s heart pounded loudly, the blood rushing to his ears, chest swelling with an excruciating cacophony of anguish and euphoria. It had been one moment and then…
Mista scrambled for the edge the moment he could move. This couldn’t be happening. This was not happening. He couldn’t bear to believe it. He wouldn’t dare to believe it, that you did it, that you could be so stupid-
There you were at the bottom, three hundred feet down. Dead.
Mind screaming, senses screeching.
Oh fuck. Oh fuck. Oh no. Dear God, no. No no no no no no no no no no no no no-
Mista howled at the ceiling in anguish and torment. He couldn’t cry, he could only bellow and wail at the air and at the sand pillars and at the stupid Arrow and at the damn rock for everything. He bashed his head down on the edge, over and over and over. He couldn’t care less if he bashed himself to death. Anything was better than feeling this wretched agony. The loss of you. The loss of his partner. His best friend. His love. It was over. He had nothing more to live for. He screamed and screamed and screamed and screamed-
A hand landed on his shoulder.
Mista stopped in his tracks of self-annihilation. He turned to look to his left. It was Blank Marquee. “What-... What...?” He couldn’t form a coherent sentence in his head. Blood dripped down from his forehead over his face. His mind was having trouble coming to terms with the Stand’s existence.
“The Arrow…” Blank Marquee spoke, her form shimmering.
“How…” Mista cleared his throat. It grew hoarse from all his screaming. He looked up at Blank Marquee. “How are you still here? G-Gumi is…”
“The Arrow…” Blank Marquee insisted again, pointing at it.
Mista followed her finger towards the elevated platform. The barrier had gone down; he could see the Arrow unprotected in all its glory.
Then, your words came to mind - “Remember what Giorno told us? About the Arrow and his Stand…?”
Mista looked over the edge once more. You were still at the bottom lying still. Lying frozen. Your plan finally clicked together in his mind. He shot up for the stairs, bolting up three steps at a time to reach the top. He snatched the arrow off the stone podium and jumped down the stairs, leaping off the last seven in a frantic frenzy. His heart was beating wildly, he was absolutely hysterical inside. If your plan worked… If your plan worked…
He came up towards Blank Marquee, his hand gripping the Arrow. The Arrow looked a bit different to the rest. Being the prototype, it was a little more shoddy looking with less details and embellishments. But if the legend was true, then it should work as the others, if not even more so.
“Alright. Guess we’re doing this,” said Mista, bracing himself.
He aimed the Arrow at Blank Marquee. He pushed the Arrow into her.
A sudden glow emitted from the Arrow and engulfed Blank Marquee whole. Mista stumbled back, shielding his eyes from the brightness with his arm. The brightness went on for a while. Mista wondered what was happening. More of your words came to mind: “If I stab the Arrow into Blank Marquee, she could become Blank Marquee Requiem. She would have the power to bring you back to life. Or rather…” Would it work? Would this Blank Marquee Requiem bring you back?
After a few blinding seconds, the brightness subsided at last. Mista removed his arm and took in the sight before him. Blank Marquee, or rather, Blank Marquee Requiem as he supposed she was now, looked different. Her armour patterns were more swirly than before. Hair grew out from the back of her head to reach down to her thigh. Most noticeably, her helmet receded back to reveal glowing eyes.
And next to her, was you. A smile adorned on your face.
“Gumi?...” Mista called your name in trepidation. He was almost scared to believe it was really you in case it actually wasn’t.
“Hey, Mista,” your smile grew into a grin, the sweetest words Mista had ever heard falling out of your lips, “I’m back.”
In no time at all, Mista was already embracing you tight. You embraced him back just as hard, revelling in his warmth and comfort. Thank goodness, thank goodness… Mista was sobbing into your neck. You too were shaking in his grasp, tears streaming down your cheeks.
You hadn’t been one hundred percent sure your plan would work at all. It was really a matter of risk and circumstance. When you had proposed for Mista to fall off the edge, you would have Blank Marquee freeze him just as he was falling. In this way, his death would be postponed as all the harm and impact inflicted on one frozen by your Stand would only occur once the power was lifted. Only in this case, you had swapped with Mista in the suspension between life and death.
The fact that Blank Marquee had not vanished upon your impact was proof that you were still alive. Mista had banked on that chance to save you with the Arrow and Blank Marquee Requiem, who was an upgraded version of your original Stand. Just as Giorno’s Golden Experience Requiem developed powers beyond worldly limits, so too did Blank Marquee Requiem, and your Stand denied your inevitable death. Your Stand ‘froze’ the death that would have happened in that moment ad infinitum.
“You’re so s-stupid!” Mista couldn’t stop sobbing, not wanting to let you go. “Why d-did you do that?? I can’t believe you! You’re s-so stupid!!”
You too were sobbing, partly out of relief at being able to see him again and partly because of Mista’s sobbing, all adding up together in one big symbiotic sobbing cycle. “I’m only as stupid as you,” you weeped with a teary smile. Oh gosh. You were getting snot and tears everywhere on Mista’s shoulder but you didn’t care. You wouldn’t have it any other way.
You wished the two of you could have shared this moment for longer.
The entire cavern started to rumble.
“What’s happening?” You and Mista separated as you felt the tremors of the ground beneath your feet. Dust started falling, followed by little crumbs of rocks.
“... This place is coming down…”
You and Mista turned to see the man with the white cap on the ground. He lifted his head up, his gaze wavering, blood running down his chin.
“What do you mean? Oi, talk!” Mista went over to shove him with his foot. You placed a hand on Mista’s shoulder to calm him down. You were surprised to find the man was still alive.
“... This entire pyramid is a Stand. It seeks to take us all down with it... No one was ever supposed to have the Arrow...”
You thought back to your journal. You wondered how this man came across such information. Putting that aside, however. There were more important things to contend with right now. The shaking was getting heavier with more dust and debris falling.
“We have to get out of here,” you said. You looked towards the entrance. It was still blocked. You tried looking for another route, any route that might have opened up-
“... Help me with your Stand.”
The man wheezed, trying to get up but falling down again.
Mista drew his gun on him. “Oh yeah? And why should we help you? For all we know, you could finish the both of us off with that ridiculous Stand of yours and run off with the Arrow. Tell me why I shouldn’t just finish you off right now.”
“Wait, Mista,” you grabbed his arm with the pistol. Perhaps it was the pity from seeing the man dying and struggling on the floor, but your instincts were telling you something about him. “Let’s listen to what he has to say.”
“... The one you call Giorno… Is it Giorno Giovanna?...”
You blinked your eyes in surprise. “That’s Don Giorno to you, buddy. What of it?” Mista prodded impatiently.
“... I knew his biological Father-” The man coughed up blood on the floor before continuing, “... My name is Jotaro Kujo... If you help me, I will get us out of here... with my Stand...”
“Annnnd?” Mista pressed, tipping his ear towards him.
“... No harm shall come to either of you… The Arrow is yours to take...”
Satisfied, Mista nodded his head and turned to you. “What do you think? Can we trust him?”
For some reason, you got a strange feeling about this man, this Jotaro Kujo. You had never met him before but he gave off a kind of cool aura about him.
Not only that but time was running out. Larger rocks started raining down now.
You nodded your head at Mista, “We don’t exactly have much choice. Blank Marquee Requiem-” You called for your Stand to pause Jotaro’s impending death. Jotaro got up, the bullet wounds having healed, and he dusted himself off before fixing the cap on his head. “Don’t get any funny ideas though,” you warned him, pointing in his face, “Blank Marquee Requiem can undo it anytime if you double cross us.”
Jotaro grunted in affirmation then got to work. He called upon his Stand. “Star Platinum, Act 2!” The purple Stand came out in his humanoid form then morphed into his dragon form, his face elongating into a snout, his hands and feet growing claws and a tail coming out from his pelvis.
Star Platinum Act 2 gave an almighty roar then charged straight through the heavy stone slab, breaking a way open. The three of you started running through, following after Jotaro and his Stand as he pummelled and barrelled his way back through the labyrinth. Though it was good that you had your method of escape, the Dragon Stand was throwing up a lot of rocks and debris behind and in your way, making you dodge and duck a lot. You supposed this form wasn’t made for delicate operations.
Partway through your escape, you encountered the killer ducks from before. They morphed into killer eagles. Mista shot at them with his Pistols and you took care of freezing the leftovers. If a large rock should land on any of you, Blank Marquee Requiem would ‘freeze’ the injury from happening so you could carry on running. The pyramid was coming down harder and harder. You could feel it sinking deeper into the ground.
“Grab on,” Jotaro instructed. You and Mista grabbed onto the Dragon Stand with your Stands and you were all hoisted up into the air. The way out was closing up with sand but Jotaro’s Stand busted his way through without trouble. No matter how much sand or stone was thrown in the way, Star Platinum easily charged through, level after level, until at last, all of you bursted free from the top of the pyramid, soaring high into the sky above. The sun had started to set, turning the sky purple with streaks of pink and orange near the horizon. You felt the cool breeze against your face. You heard Mista and his Pistols woop and yelp in joy behind you. It was the greatest feeling after almost being eaten alive by the sands of a sinking pyramid.
Jotaro landed you all some distance from the pyramid and together you watched as it disappeared whole into the sand without a trace. The final ripples as the last of it sank in settled over the top and all was still.
There was an awkward moment of silence between you all.
“Okay. We should probably head back,” said Mista to you. Then to Jotaro, “Guess this makes things even between us.”
“Indeed,” said Jotaro. He pulled his cap down over his brow. “I believe we won’t be seeing each other again.”
You both watched as Jotaro walked off before turning in the opposite direction.
“Are we really going to let him go scot-free?” asked Mista. “You could undo the freeze on his death. Just in case he came back after us for the Arrow.”
You shook your head. “Nah, I think he’s a man of his word. Besides,” Blank Marquee drifted beside you, back in her original form, “I think Blank Marquee needs a rest. And so do I-” You stretched your arms up, yawning. Mista smiled at you softly. He was thinking how cute you were.
A tranquility settled over you both as you walked. You weren’t about to forget what happened down in the cavern. Your face grew hot as you recalled the kiss… and your words of confession...
“Sooo, about what went on down there…” Mista blushed. He was thinking the same thing.
You shushed him with a finger to his lips. “Let’s talk about it later. I’m really tired and hungry.”
“Okay. Me too.” Mista beamed at you.
You and Mista walked off into the sunset, Arrow tucked into the latter’s backpack.
-End-