Part 4

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"So where are we heading next?" Nicky said while he was sitting by a 
campfire and was roasting a hot dog over it. They camped in a small 
forest a day walked from the tower or where it was. The forest was a 
normal forest. There was nothing creepy or scary about it. Every now 
and again you would hear the occasion owl, but nothing that could make 
you jump.

"East to the second tower," Luna replied as she sat down next to him.

"Can I see where we're going?"

"Okay," she replied as she took out her map and unrolled it. She then 
pointed to a blue x on the map, "Here."

"Where's my town on this map?"

"Here," she said as she pointed to a white circle just southwest of the 
blue x.

"Hey, if my memory serve me correct, I think there's a big city there."

"There is?"

"Yes, its called Tech."

"Good. We can ditch her there."

"Why do we have to ditch her?" Nicky asked as he looked at the sleeping 
Gloria on the other side of the campfire. She was using his sleeping 
bag and was quite peaceful there. 

"Because she will just slow us down and she will become an ignorance."

"No she won't."

"Of course she will."

"And how do you know?"

"Because I just do."

"Do you have the power of seeing into the future?"

"No."

"So how do you really know?"

"Oh shut-up."

"Now you're just angry that I'm right and you're wrong."

"I'm not wrong."

"How do you know?"

"I just do okay."

"Fine, fine. Believe what you want."

"You will see that I was right soon even," she replied as she got up.

"Where are you going?"

"Away from you."

"Man, what's your problem?"

"Her."

"You're jealous, aren't you?"

"Of course I'm not. Why will I be jealous of that elf?"

"Because you are."

"I am not and that's the end of it."

"Of course you're not."

"Maybe I ditched you with her in the next town," Luna replied as she 
walked off away from Nicky.

M

It took a week to get to Tech and the second tower. The city that was 
called the city of the future was just that. Everything that you can 
picture in a city of the future was there. Skyscrapers covered the 
city, hover cars roamed the streets, robots walked the sidewalks that 
were on top of each other to the sky, and in the middle of the city was 
the tower. It was the tallest building in the city and was made 
complete out of metal. All three of them were amazed at the sight of 
the city.

"The pictures I seen of this city doesn't do it justice," Nicky said as 
he walked through the city looking up in amazement.     

"I never seen anything like this," Luna said as she walked next to him.

"Shiny," Gloria said as she walked behind them.

"Night will fall soon. We need to find a place to sleep for the 
night," Luna said.

"And some food," Gloria added.

"Well I don't have that much money," Nicky said as he took out his 
wallet and counted his money, "So we got to find someplace cheap and 
only get one room."

"Okay. Then tomorrow we can go to the tower and Gloria get some more 
food," Luna replied.

"Okay. Wait, I thought you going to ditch her here."

"If she does this one thing, she can stay with us."

"Yeah," Nicky said as he hugged her.

"Get off of me," she replied as she pushed him off.

"Fine, fine. Hey Gloria did you hear that? You can stay with us."

"I can. Yeah!" Gloria replied as she hugged Nicky and he hugged her 
back.

"This is going to be a long trip," Luna said in disgust.

M

Xavier wondered around this large indoor marketplace in the city of 
Tech for about an hour now trying to gather his thoughts together. He 
was in Tech to stop Luna and Nicky from placing the second stone in the 
tower, but first he had to find a plan of action first so he went to 
the marketplace. It was always a haven for him. The sounds, the crowd 
of people, and the familiarity was always the same in every marketplace 
even if what was selling was different or the people look different. It 
was all the same to him. He couldn't put a reason why a marketplace was 
a place of comfort to him, but it was.

As he was turning down an aisle were the all the produce were grouped 
together when he saw her.

"Gloria," he said to himself as he watch this small elf girl buying 
some fruits from this old lady merchant. The way she looked, the way 
she moved, the way she dressed was exactly like his late, Luna's 
mother, Gloria, but it couldn't be her. He remembered finding her dead 
in the stables. Her white nightgown and the hay she was laying in were 
stained with her blood that ran from her heart.

"It can't be. My mind is playing tricks with me," he replied to himself 
as he walked up closer to the girl so he can hear her voice.

"Um… what else should I get?" Gloria said as she continued to walk down 
the aisle, "Maybe some bread."

"It's the same voice," Xavier thought as he heard her voice.

"How about an onion or two?" she said as she saw some, "I can make a 
stew with them and some potatoes and carrots too. I should get some 
spices then."

"Why is my mind torturing me like this?"

"I'm hope I'm doing good, so Luna will let me stay with her and Nicky."

"Luna, huh? Well I guess I have to introduce myself to her."

Gloria went to a booth of vegetables and got the onions, potatoes, and 
carrots for her stew. She paid the vendor with a happy smile on her 
face and when she turned around, Xavier was there.

"Hello," she said to him with a smile.

"Hello, my darning," Xavier replied as he took her hand and kissed it.

"Why did you do that?" Gloria said as she pulled back her hand. 

"That how a gentleman greets a lovely lady like yourself. Let me 
introduce myself. My name is Xavier."

"My name is Gloria."

"It is you then. My precious Gloria, you have returned."

"What are you talking about? Do I know you?"

"In a different life."

Xavier than hugged her. As Gloria felt his arm around her, she didn't 
become afraid because he was a demon, but she strangely found comfort 
in his arms. He released her from his hold, he kissed her on the 
forehead. Then he took out the cursed knife, which he took from Luna 
and placed it in her hand.

"A gift from a friend from another life," he said as he cupped her 
fingers over the knife, "May it bring to you more luck than it did in 
your another life."

"Thank you mister." She said as she placed the knife in the bag of 
vegetable and walked away.

M

"Please, please, please, PLEASE be an elevator in this tower," Nicky 
said as he and Luna walked through the doors of the second tower.

"What is so important of an elevator?" Luna said as she turned around 
to look at him.

"It just is. I don't want to walk all the way up there."

"You're just lazy."

"Yes, an elevator!" Nicky said as he ran to an elevator that was in the 
middle of the tower.

"But what does it do?" Luna asked as she walked in it.

"It takes us up and a lot faster than walking."

"Interesting."

Nicky went in and pushed to the up button. There were only two stops 
for this elevator, the top and the bottom. It took the elevator a 
couple of minutes to reach the top and this amazed Luna. After exiting 
the elevator, they entered a room with nothing but glass windows as 
walls. You could see the whole city from this point and it was a 
beautiful site to behold.

"Where is it?" Luna asked as she looked around the room.

"Where what?" Nicky asked.

"The place to place the second stone. I don't see it anywhere."

"Um… maybe it's not here."

"But it got to be."

Then Luna spotted a ladder on the back of the elevator.

"I think we have to go up some more," she said as she placed her hand 
on the ladder.

"This is a bad time to say I'm afraid of heights isn't," Nicky replied.

"You're not afraid of heights."

"I know. I should go up first seeing your wearing a dress and all."

"Yeah."

Nicky climbed the ladder and Luna followed. The ladder led to a roof of 
the tower and to a small table where the stone is to be placed.

"There it is," Luna said as she saw it. She took out the blue second 
stone out of the pouch and placed it in a hole in the middle of the 
table.

"Wait, the last time you did this, the tower fall down. Is it going to 
do the same thing here?" Nicky asked.

"I don't know. I guess we're going to find out."

Then the tower started to shake but didn't start moving down. Instead 
the walls started to fall off. They quickly went to the ladder and 
climbed down. Then went into the elevator seeing that's the only way to 
get back down.

"I don't like this," Nicky said as pushed the down button of the 
elevator.

"Me either," she replied as she sat down.

Then suddenly the elevator stopped.

"Why did it stop?" Luna asked.

"I don't know," Nicky asked as he sat down next to Luna.

"I hear something breaking. Like ropes or something."

"SHIT!" Nicky yelled as the elevator dropped. He held on to Luna as the 
elevator gain speed. Luna grasped the side railing trying to keep her 
and Nicky down. The great danger and all the energy Luna was using 
brought out the demon in her. Her wings ripped out of her dressed and 
wrapped their self around them. It only took 30 seconds for the 
elevator to reach the bottom.

"I'm never going on another elevator as long as I live," Nicky said as 
he let go of Luna. She wasn't paying attention to him, but only to the 
fangs she saw in his mouth, but before she could say anything, she fell 
down unto the floor. She was exhausted and all her energy ran out of 
her. Her wings went back in and she turned back into her elfish self as 
she fell.

"Luna are you okay?" Nicky asked, but she didn't replied.

Because the tower was falling apart, he picked up Luna and walked as 
fast as he can out of the tower. There was a crowd gather to see the 
tower that was there before they ever got here, fall down. As Nicky 
walked out, a couple of people came to him.

"What happened?" someone asked.

"My friend need some help. Can some one call an ambulance or 
something?" he said.

"Of course," someone else replied as he took out his cell phone and 
called the hospital. In a matter of minutes an ambulance came and took 
Luna and Nicky to a hospital. 

Nicky was completely fine, so was Luna with the exception of the lack 
of energy, but that was easily fixed with an energy transfusion. Of 
course to make matters difficult, Luna had a rare type, type m. You see 
there's three type of energy, type e, type g, and type m. Type g is the 
most common of the three and type e as almost as common as type g, but 
only a rare few had type m. But lucky for her, they're ways to 
artificially make energy. It's not as good as the real stuff, but it 
works.

They keep Luna overnight to keep an eye on her until her energy was 
full. Nicky was at her side every minute he could be. He of course had 
to pick Gloria up from the market and then the police came to ask him a 
few question of what happened. He replied with the truth. The police 
thanked him for his time and went on their way seeing they didn't cause 
any harm, but was actually trying to save them.

M

"I can't believe you talked me into wearing this," Luna said as she 
looked into her hotel room mirror. Because of what happened at the 
second tower, her clothes were turned into rags. The skirt was 
completely ripped up. The right sleeve was torn off so they could put 
IVs into her arm. The front body of the dressed was ripped from the 
neckline to the waist so they could transfer the energy into her body. 
Of course she didn't have a spare set of clothes, so Nicky and Gloria 
went out and brought some for her. They didn't have a clue to what to 
get for her, but luckily a store clerk helped them and thanks to 
technology they got exactly the right size for Luna.

"But it look good on you," Nicky replied as he sat at the small table 
in the room teaching Gloria how to play poker to pass the time.

"But I feel almost naked," she said as she looked down at her bare 
belly-bottom and then covered it with her arms. She was wearing a 
loose, white, spaghetti strap shirt that went just above her belly-
bottom and tight fitting black jeans with a big black belt that went 
around her waist twice.  

"Stop it. You look good."

"Yes, very pretty," Gloria added.

"But I just don't feel right." Luna said.

"Just be quiet about this. You're beautiful," Nicky replied as he got 
up from his chair and then hugged her from behind.

"Group hug!" Gloria said as she got up and hugged both Nicky and Luna.

"Get her off of me," Luna replied.

"Okay, okay," Nicky said while laughing.

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