FicWad

Primis

Chapter 5

Three Weeks & 3 days later

Naruto looked over at the pieces of his commando assault rifle again to make sure there was no defects or blocked mechanisms in it. This was becoming a common occurrence as of late. He wanted to know how to use the weapon effectively. Which means he needs to know the ins and outs of it in case it were to get jammed or damaged. As it is a weapon of the Old World it meant the technology to make more of it was lost; it can be rediscovered again but the likelihood of that happening is low.

Nevertheless he made due with what he has.

The survivors of Pieta had split into groups a few days after he had been recovered from that shattered realm; the less of them that are around the less likelihood they would get discovered by the organization. They were close to one another however so they weren't truly alone. They would also meet up regularly to help each other tone their abilities to even greater heights, while learning to completely suppress their yoki.

"You're checking that thing again?" came a voice Naruto was use to hearing by now. Helen sat down beside him and looked at the parts of the rifle with a look of disinterest. "I don't know why you're looking at the thing twice a day."

"The same reason you're training every day." he pointed out. Helen made a sound of realisation and looked at the others who were training to hone their abilities and create new skills for the inevitable encounter with the organization. "So how's your training coming along Helen?" he asked after putting one of the parts down so he wouldn't get distracted.

At that the short haired woman grinned cheerfully, "It's coming along great actually! Jean's been really helpful when it comes to using her Drill Sword." she was trying to figure out a way to make the length of its preparation shorter. No such luck so far.

"And the others?"

"Miria' is looking for a way to make her phantom faster. She keeps crashing into things." she sniggered at the image of their leader crashing face first into a tree. Or a mountain side. "Cynthia is trying manipulate her yoki and so on; she's also helping Yuma with yoki manipulation. Yuma is also working on throwing her sword as accurately as possible. Tabitha is learning how to fight without using yoki at all and to accurately sense people like us from a distance. Deneve is learning how to fight using two claymores at once and is augmenting her strength."

"Basically everyone is doing great." Naruto interrupted her.

Rather than be annoyed at getting interrupted Helen gave him another grin and nodded her head with a lot of enthusiasm. "Yep! We're doing great!" Helen couldn't help but feel giddy; they were learning to do new things and they were getting their already known abilities stronger. Not to mention Clare was learning to use Flora's Windcutter in order to replace it with the Quicksword; she needed a technique that was as fast as the Quicksword but didn't need to use yoki. Flora's Windcutter fit the bill and was getting the owner of said technique to help her out.

"Cool. Cool." after giving the parts a thorough look over Naruto put them back together piece by piece. He grabbed a magazine and slid it into its slot at the bottom and locked it into place. It roughly took him five to ten minutes to assemble it together.

"So what happened to the Keeper? I haven't seen it around lately." Helen asked as she looked around for the otherworldly being.

"It can't stay here indefinitely Helen." he pointed out, putting the reassembled CAR-15 back down before looking at her, "As for where it went. you remember it said about finding a trail to something?"

"Oh yeah." Helen scratched the back of her head and leaned back and looked at her fellow blonde. "What was it again? I kinda forgot." she admitted with a sheepish grin.

"It didn't say anything actually." he replied with a shake of his head and a sigh, "It just said it found a trail to something and just vanished. I have no idea what it is though." Naruto made a thoughtful noise and looked up. "You think it could related to the Old World?"

Helen shrugged, "Maybe? Whatever it finds I hope it's useful."

"I just hope it doesn't find something destructive. I've heard a few weapons of the Old World were powerful enough to partially destroy an entire city."

"Really?"

"Yeah. But that was just through word of mouth. No one actually knows if the Old World had weapons on that scale."

Helen let out a shudder, if weapons on that scale existed and the organization had their hands on them...she dreads the very thought of that being reality. No one should have that kind of power. No one.

"Anyway," she began getting back up, "I'm going to get back to training. Jean is looking a little impatient." Naruto looked at Jean and he could see she was looking a bit impatient. "I'll talk to you later, kid." Helen said and ruffled his hair before walking over to her training partner while waving over her shoulder at Naruto.

Chortling Naruto shook his head and stood up to stretch. Taking the Commando he slid his arm through the sling and slung it over his shoulder before going out to explore. Another thing he was doing regularly: exploring.

These mountains stretched for miles. It took a while to get to the bottom of them. Not to mention the cold was uncomfortable for him. Thank god the snow was gone; it is still chilly for his liking but his clothes mostly did their job in keeping his heat in.

The others didn't say anything as he left. It was a regular thing he did and they all knew he would be back after a while. Sometimes longer depending on the route he'd take.

X.X.X.X

Naruto walked down the dirt path as he cautiously scanned his surroundings. Just because the hybrids were around didn't mean he can slack around when it comes to walking. He can still get ambushed. He wants to avoid that as much as possible.

When he came to a split path Naruto took the right. He's been to the left far too many times now and took the right roughly around five or six times during the weeks and three days he's been in the mountains. He didn't know why but every time he took this path, the right path, everything felt a little...off. Like something unnatural was in the air.

It felt sickening.

He told everyone else about it but they brushed it off. Miria even told him to not bring it to their attention after the tenth time.

Well, as the saying goes: if you want something done right, then you should do it yourself.

After half an hour of walking Naruto felt it. A feeling of dread. It was faint but noticeable. Instead of turning back like he normally would the blonde brought up his CAR-15 and walked towards it; he walked off the path and with each step he took the feeling of dread steadily increased. Breathing shakingly through his nose Naruto brought the barrel up of the assault rifle up and scanned his surroundings.

Nothing so far but there was a sense of unease in the atmosphere.

Taking a deep breath Naruto lowered the assault rifle to his waist and kept following the feeling. It's stupid of him to do this but seeing as no one believes him it falls to him to find out what the hell is causing this.

It wasn't until he stepped on something he stopped. Looking down at the ground Naruto frowned suspiciously and moved his foot somewhere else. Then he moved it back. The ground was uneven here. Suspiciously uneven. Almost like there was something underneath.

Looking around for a moment Naruto looked back to the ground before, slinging his CAR-15 back and kneeling down to start digging into the earth. Ten minutes later he felt something. And by the sound of his gloved hand touching it, the material hidden under the earth is solid and hard.

"What on earth...?" he pulled away and his face showed confusion. He found metal. Naruto dug out the earth a bit more, taking out chunks at a time until he got a more clear view of what he had. After roughly an hour or two had passed Naruto had finished digging the rest of it out. Rubbing his forehead with his forearm a panting Naruto stood up and took a few steps back, "Why is this out here?"

It was a metal door. A metal trap door that was hidden. And it was rusted. Making an interesting sound and ignoring the feeling of dread, Naruto moved behind the hatch bent down and pulled on it with a strained grunt.

The metal hinges that were rusting under the ground for an untold number of years groaned in protest. After a few strong tugs and sore arms and fingers the trap door opened up with a horrible screech.

"Ah! Crap that hurts!" he hissed shaking his hand and moving his fingers to get some feeling back into them. Inhaling and exhaling Naruto moved in front of the trap door and peered inside. The light showed stairs that went down fairly deep. He could see the end of it thankfully.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained, Naruto walked down the stairs while he brought his CAR-15 up at the same time. He checked the sensor to see if it picked up anything; it showed everything was clear. Sighing Naruto closed the monitor and made his way further into the underground complex.

Slowly Naruto's eyes began to adjust to the darkness; he was able to see partially through it but not much. Following the corridor and taking several corners that went one way Naruto found himself in a wide and open room. He could see a lot of cobwebs in the shadows.

There was a single sarcophagus in the middle of it; along with a tall statue of a young man with trimmed hair, wearing medieval armour. A surcoat over mail with a strange circular symbol on it; plate boots and gloves. Held in his hands was a sword. But one thing he saw was the statue being helmet-less.

The feeling of dread was still there; it was stronger, much stronger and hard to ignore but bearable.

"Why would a tomb be here?" Naruto asked aloud with barely veiled confusion. He wasn't expecting an answer, so imagine his surprise when someone did talk back to him.

"Why indeed."

Naruto quickly turned around and brought up his commando at the same time in the direction the voice came from. He didn't recognise it. It was masculine, gruff, and spoke with authority. To his stunned disbelief Naruto watched as a man, a spectre, appeared before his eyes, walking towards him as the sounds of plate armour clanking the ground echoed through the room.

As he got closer Naruto could see that the man was fairly young with dark brown hair, and a rough beard. The man is in his late 20s to early 30s if he had to guess. He had a strong, professional look about him; a similar look his mother and father use to have when he last saw them.

This man was a trained solider. And he was wearing the same kind of armour as the statue.

"It's been a long time since I saw you kid. Or anyone stepping into this tomb for that matter." the man said.

"Who are you?" Naruto asked questionably.

The spectre frowned and crossed his arms, "You don't remember?" at the blank look the ghost got he elaborated, "The Apothicons? The zombies? You don't remember any of that?"

"Zombies? Those walking corpses? I briefly fought them a month ago." he remembered the yoma and that shattered world he had been too. "As for these Apothicons? I never heard of them." he paused and gave the spectre a searching look. "How do you know me anyway? I never saw you before in my life."

The spectre let out a sigh like growl as he rubbed the back of his head, "Shit. If the zombies are back then that means the Apothicons are back too. Or are at least aware." with another sigh the spectre turned around and began to pace back and forth. Then he stopped and looked at the teenager with reluctance as he asked, "Did you fight any Margwa's?"

"...Did they have three heads and spiky tentacle arms?"

Naruto was taken aback at how disturbed the man's mannerisms were. "Oh fuck they're actually here!?" Naruto took a step back when the spectre got up in his face. "What's the world's like now after the last Human-Apothicon war!?" because when he was still alive the world had been almost destroyed with much of the technology being lost or destroyed.

"I don't know much, but back home we have muskets and gun-powder, along with cannons and the like. We also have electricity and have steam trains and stuff. Here, however, everyone is still using swords, bows and arrows. As far as I know they have no advanced technology."

The spectre growled and pinched the bridge of his nose, "It sounds like your homeland is in the late industrial/early modern period." he said and threw his arm out to gesture around, "And this place, here, it sounds as if they're in the early Medieval period. Could be the Dark Ages though."

"Industrial? Modern? Medieval? Dark Ages? What are those?" Naruto looked so confused; he never heard of these terminologies before.

"They're periods from before my time. Except Modern, that is my era." the spectre turned to look at the statue of himself.

"How did you stop them the first time?" Naruto asked as he stood beside the ghost.

"We used a weapon many countries had piled their resources to make. It kicked the Apothicons out of our dimension. And if they're coming back then this weapon is going to be needed again." the man sighed. "Unfortunately it sounds like you don't have the technology to make it."

"What are our chances on killing an Apothicon?"

"It depends on what type of Apothicon you're fighting. The Margwa's are smaller versions of Apothicons'. Seeing as you need to destroy their heads, if all you have are muskets and cannons in your homeland then you're in for a tough fight. Anywhere else well..."

They wouldn't have much of a chance against them. That wasn't ominous at all.

"...right. Err. What other Apothicons' are there?" Naruto asked, as he coughed into his hand.

"Well. You have the Margwa's. The annoying three mouthed pieces of shit. Then you have giant space faring squids. Think of the highest, widest thing you can imagine – then times that by a thousand." the ghost said.

Naruto was in disbelief. "That's...fucking hell, that can't be possible!"

"It is possible. Hell, I saw plenty of 'em when I was still alive kid! If one, just one, of those zombie making assholes get here nothing we have will even hurt it." he sighed and clasped his hands behind his back. If only the wonder weapons were still around they were the only things that could hurt 'em.

"There has to be something..."

"There is. But the likelihood of you getting them is very unlikely."

"I'm going to take a wild guess and say you're talking about weapons. Insanely powerful weapons."

"I am." the spectre nodded with affirmativeness. "But with how much that has been lost to time, I'm not going to hold my fucking hopes up."

The room was filled with silence. Naruto tilt his head to the side as he looked between the spectre and the statue repeatedly.

"What is your name?" Naruto asked him after fifteen minutes of long, suffocating silence.

"Heh. The name's 'Tank' Dempsey." Naruto caught his breath upon hearing the name of the ghost. Holy fucking shit! He's talking to one of the Legendary Four! Dempsey didn't seem to notice the reaction the reveal of his name had caused as he asked without missing a beat, "What about you? What's your name kid?"

"N-Naruto Namikaze." then Naruto remembered what Tank had said before. "If you know me then why did you ask for my name? And how do you know me? You never did answer that."

"Kid I was here for a very long time." Dempsey said. "Names and faces can be forgotten. As for how I know you, well in my past we fought the Apothicons side by side, back to back. We got separated at the end though and we never did see you again." he grunted as he brought his hand to his chin. "But if you're not the kid I remember, and this is a different time period then you not remembering makes sense." he murmured before giving Naruto a direct look, "How many years has it been since I died?"

"I don't know. A rough estimate would be two to three thousand years."

"Jesus. That long?" the man breathed with a stunned look on his face. He looked at Naruto again and looked him over, he pointed at his attire and weapon asked, "If that much time had passed, then how come you're wearing clothes and carrying a weapon from my era?"

"I found it. And the Assault Rifle was given to me." Naruto truthfully answered the spectre. Dempsey couldn't help the skeptical look that crept on his face. "It's true! Swear to god I found the clothes and I was given this weapon." he added upon seeing the look Dempsey was giving him.

"Uh-huh..."

"Really I did."

"I believe you." he really didn't.

"Really? Because the expression on your face and the tone you're using says otherwise!"

"It's how I always look and sound."

"Bullshit!"

Dempsey was sniggering silently at the reaction the kid was having towards him. It's pretty damn funny to be honest. And refreshing. But even still, even though this isn't the same Naruto he barely remembers' it was nice seeing him again.

"By the way kid, if you want to turn on the lights there should be a power switch nearby. Hopefully it's still working."

X.X.X.X

Six hours later

Helen tutted in annoyance and irritation at the lack of progress she was having in preforming Jean's Drill Sword. It still took far too long for her to get it ready. Not to mention twisting her arm around several time was a strain on her arm. Stretching it was no problem; she was use to that but twisting it several times was difficult.

"Let's stop here for now Helen." Jean told her.

Helen had to qualms with that. Her entire arm felt stiff and crooked from the strain she put it under while trying to get her technique down. Sighing in relief as she bent and straightened her arm Helen looked around to see if Naruto was around.

He wasn't.

She found this to be odd because he would normally be back by now.

"Did anyone see Naruto around?" she asked.

Her comrades all shook their heads in the negative. Helen got a little concerned. Closing her eyes Miria sighed and as she opened them again she turned to address the concerned hybrid.

"Do you know where he would be at this time?" she asked.

"Apart from being here?" Helen shook her head in the negative. "I don't have the slightest idea."

Helen and Miria both looked to Yuma who said, "Um...he did say he felt something unnatural when he was exploring the mountains. Several times."

"That was just a figment of his imagination." Miria dismissed the idea as she didn't believe in superstitious things like that.

"But what if they weren't?" Yuma shot back. "What if he is telling the truth and is in trouble right now, because none of us took him seriously?"

"Yuma has a point Captain." Tabitha said; she joined Miria, Helen and Yuma with Flora, Jean, Deneve, Clare and Cynthia trailing behind her. "With beings like the Margwa-"

"And the walking dead!" Helen added helpfully.

"-and the walking dead around he could be in trouble right now, as we speak." the braided, plait haired woman finished as though she had not been interrupted.

Pinching the bridge of her nose Miria let out an irritated sigh. "Alright. A few of us will go and look for him." she said before turning to address Helen. "Since he is your responsibility you're going to lead the search. Being no more than two with you."

Helen shrugged with a look of indifference that betrayed the worry she was feeling. "Alright. Deneve, Flora wanna come with?"

Deneve nodded and went to get her claymore that she had discarded when her training was finished for the day. Flora who already had her claymore equipped nodded as well and waited for Deneve to get her weapon.

"Alright. Let's go!" Helen declared once Deneve rejoined them.

"Don't use your yoki! We don't want to give ourselves away to the Organization!" Miria told them as they walked down the dirt path Naruto had taken.

Helen waved at her from over her shoulder with no concern. "We know Miria. We won't be giving ourselves away any time soon."

Miria, Clare, Cynthia, Jean, Yuma and Tabitha momentarily watched as Helen and Deneve and Flora followed the path Naruto had taken. And as the trio got further and further away the group of six dispersed one by one until only Miria was left. It wasn't until they were completely out of her line of sight that Miria turned away.

Helen, Deneve and Flora had followed the dirt path until they reached the split path. They took the right because they remembered it as the one Naruto saying he felt something unnatural. They didn't feel anything when they took the path everything felt normal.

It wasn't until a half an hour later, where Naruto had went off the road, that they felt it. The feeling of dread filling their souls. Helen and Deneve and Flora stopped and as they put themselves back to back they reached for their blade.

"He wasn't lying." Flora said.

Helen gave a wary nod, "Yeah. If this was what he felt I can see why he tried to tell us." she scowled scoldingly at herself, "I should've believed him."

"We all should have. And if he's in trouble then it will be up to us to get him out of it." Deneve told her.

While the three of them knew Naruto can take care of himself, he is still a young man. A normal young man who tires a lot faster than hybrids such as them would. It would be a matter of time before he slips up.

"Can you tell where it's coming from?" Flora questioned.

"...yeah..." Deneve cautiously walked off the path as she pulled her claymore out from its back mounted scabbard. "It's coming from over here."

Helen and Flora exchanged looks before they followed after the pixie-haired woman and pulled out their own swords from its sheathe. Eventually they found the hatch Naruto opened and entered and the women could feel the dreadfulness emitting from within. It was noticeable and bearable. Exchanging another look they all nodded at the same time and walked down the staircase one by one.

They followed the corridor and winced as their footsteps echoed off the walls. The women followed the corridor and turned a lot of corners and as they were reaching up to the final corner they could see a blinking light at the end of it along with the sounds of a person faintly talking.

Feeling worried Helen hastened her pace and took the lead with Deneve and Flora trailing behind. Eventually they came upon a wide and open room with blinking roof-mounted stage lights that were blinking.

As they entered Helen, Deneve and Flora found a single sarcophagus in the middle of the room; behind the stone coffin, seemingly looming over it, with a tall statue of a young man with trimmed hair, wearing medieval armour. A surcoat over mail with a strange circular symbol on it; plate boots and gloves. Held in his hands was a sword similar to the one they saw Naruto wield. But the statue wasn't Naruto however, it was of a man in his late 20s to early 30s.

And they could hear two people talking. One of whom they know and the other a complete stranger. They were acting as though they were friends for decades. And from the sound of things, they were in the middle of a conversation.

"-ained you to use muskets? At the age of 13?" Dempsey incredulously questioned.

"Yeah. The first time I ever fired one knocked me on my ass. It wasn't a 'pleasant' experience." Naruto answered.

"No kidding. From the way your holding your shoulder I guess the 'kick' of the rifle dislocated your shoulder?"

"Yep. It hurt like a bitch getting it back into place."

It was to their great shock that next to a low whirring generator that had a light orange substance travelling through it, was Naruto and Dempsey. They were greatly shocked because Dempsey was transparent. Naruto was casually talking to a fricking ghost.

"So lay it onto me kid: why did your parents really treat you like crap? And don't give me any bull about you not being good enough for what they had in mind for you."

"I honestly don't know Dempsey. They just...started treating me differently one day. It was subtle at first. I didn't notice any difference in them. But as the months past and I got older it became more and more..." he trailed off

"Noticeable?" Dempsey offered.

"Yeah. Noticeable." Naruto sighed. "Eventually after failing to do good at anything they wanted me to do for several years, they just lost faith in me. My sisters were the same; although they were more understanding and supportive for a while." frowning thoughtfully Naruto looked down at the floor and made a thinking noise. Neither of them noticed Flora, Deneve and Helen approaching thanks to the whirring of the generator.

"Something on your mind?" the spectre asked.

Slowly Naruto nodded. "Yeah. There's a large gap in my memory. That was when my parents were beginning to act differently. When I try to remember I come up with nothing. There's just...nothing there."

"Amnesia?"

"Yeah there's a gap between the ages seven to 12-" both Naruto and Dempsey were interrupted when they heard someone clear their throat; they turned their heads and found Helen, Deneve and Flora staring at them. Though the latter two were giving Dempsey a wary look. Naruto was really surprised to see them in the tomb. "Helen, Deneve, Flora! What're you doing here?"

"We came looking for you!" Helen said and pulled him into a hug to Dempsey's bemusement. "Do you know how long you were missing for?" she said while pulling back to look down at him and when he shook his head in the negative she exclaimed, "Six hours! Six!"

"Seriously?"

"Yes! For the love of god I thought you were in trouble or worse!" Deneve pinched the bridge of her nose at her friends antics and Flora was nervously looking between the ghost and Naruto and Helen. Helen seemed to be ignoring the ghost for the moment.

Dempsey sniggered and said with an amused grin, "Heh. Looks like you got yourself a worried girlfriend, kid."

"She's not my girlfriend. She's a friend." Naruto corrected him and Dempsey raised his hands in an almost teasing, yet placating manner.

Ignoring the pang in her chest at the dismissal Helen looked at the ghost and very slowly leaned down until she was cheek to cheek with Naruto. "...Who's the ghost?"

Instead of Naruto answering, it was Dempsey who answered, and he left it purposely vague. "I am a remnant of a time long past."

"Should they know?" Naruto questioned after a moment of tense silence.

Dempsey full knowing what the kid was asking shrugged with indifference. "Might as well. It won't change anything as far as I know."

"But it can change everything." Naruto said who knew his existence would change everything, and knowing Miria's personality and thirst for knowledge and desire to take down the organization, she would personally want to come down here to see him for herself.

Dempsey glanced at Naruto from the corner of his eye. "We'll see, kid." said the spectre as he looked at the three hybrids again with a thin frown. "We'll see."

"So who are you exactly?" Deneve asked as she could see that her best friend was becoming a little annoyed at the way the two men were ignoring them all.

Naruto and Dempsey exchanged looks then they looked at Helen, Deneve and Flora. The spectre leaned back, arms crossed, looking as if he were sizing them up. And just when it seemed like he wasn't going to answer, he did and his answer shook them to the core.

"My name is Dempsey. 'Tank' Dempsey." and Naruto watched as the three hybrids reacted to his introduction to them.

"Whoa, wait, what?!"

"That can't be possible, you would be over two thousand years old!"

"This has to be some sort of joke. No one can be alive for that long."

As they reacted in denial to the revelation of them being in a presence of a legend Dempsey looked at Naruto from the corner of his eyes. He saw that Naruto was fairly calm. It wasn't surprising they were denying the pure fact he was still around, even though he was dead, it was getting a little annoying. Irritating. For his tastes. Being in a tomb for over a thousand years by themselves would do that to a person.

"In case you three haven't noticed yet: Dempsey is transparent. See through. He's not alive." Naruto pointed out to them, even running a hand through the man's torso to emphasis his statement, to show he wasn't lying, even though Helen said he was a ghost minutes prior.

Dempsey had a look of irritation on his face when Naruto ran his hand through his transparent body. But it had done the trick in shutting them up and Helen pressed her palm against her forehead and shook her head from side to side.

Lowering her hand Helen smirked as she gave Naruto a fond look. "First that decayed yoma. Then the Margwa. After that a shattered world full of floating islands and now this? You are a magnet for odd things aren't ya' kid?"

Naruto gave a nonchalant shrug with a small smile, "What can I say? It's both a gift and a curse."

"So what happens now? Miria is going to want to know about this." Flora said.

"And what about that dreaded feeling we felt coming here?" Deneve added on, directing the question to Dempsey himself since he would be the only one to have an answer to that.

"Yeah, what was that all about anyway?" Naruto asked as he looked at the spectre.

"That is a safety mechanism meant to ward people away." Dempsey stroked his chin, "And if what I remember of the technical mumbo jumbo is right, then, once those who are brave enough to press on through, and enter here, then it won't affect them any more as soon as they leave."

"So we won't feel it anymore?" Helen asked for clarification.

"I just said that."

"I'm just making sure." Helen then started to chuckle and she rubbed her hands together in a devious manner. "Oh-ho, Captain Miria is going to love this."

Flora was now standing beside the generator and is looking at it with fascination and awe. She heard stories of the technological marvels of the Old World. And excluding Naruto's CAR-15 and his own unique bow and sword stories was all she heard. But now here she was, standing before a working machine of the old world that by all rights should not be working.

"What is this contraption?" questioned Flora as she gave Dempsey a questioning look.

Dempsey looked over his shoulder. "Ah. This old thing? That would be a generator." he turned around and placed his gauntlet covered hand on it. "It's a complicated piece of machinery. But let me give you an example: you know candles and lanterns?"

"Yeah." Flora replied with Helen and Deneve vocalising their knowledge of them too.

"Well like a candle and lantern a generator can be used to light up dark places." Dempsey gestured to the ceiling above and the lights that are attached to various walls to light up the room.

"Is that all it can do?" Deneve questioned.

"Oh no. Generators can be used for a lot of things. Heat, cooking and lighting are a few examples."

"How is it still working?" because the generator has been underground for the past few thousand years. Two to three thousand years to be more accurate. To be here for that long with no maintenance, it should have broken down a long time ago.

"I haven't got the faintest idea to be honest" he stroked his chin with a thoughtful frown. And then, moments later, a memory popped up. It was faint; it came from a long time ago when he was still alive, but,... "Hmm. Wait. There may be something. There was a power source so powerful it could theoretically last for an eternity."

The words went completely over Helen's head. "English please?"

"The Old World found a power source that could potentially last forever. He just said that."

Helen gave Naruto a flat look. "Not all of us came from a land that is more advanced, kid. You'll have to dumb it down for us."

"Actually I could understand what the ghost meant." a sheepish Flora said with a raised finger.

"And something tells me that was his version of 'dumbing things down'." Deneve added before looking at the spectre. "Right?"

"Yeah. I was never one for any science stuff that was Richtofen's turf. I was more along the lines of guns and blowing shit up. Huh, speaking of Richtofen, I wonder how he is." Dempsey trailed off before he started walking off in a random direction in the room.

"He's dead too isn't he?" Naruto asked as he, Helen and Deneve and Flora followed after the spectre. "They all are."

The ghost didn't answer as he stopped at the base of his statue and looked up at it. Eventually the ghost scoffed, "Of course he's dead. Richtofen, Takeo, Nikolai, me. We're all dead. But let me ask you this..." Dempsey turned to look at the four from halfway over his shoulder. "If I am here as a ghost, then what are the chances of the others being here as ghosts as well?" with that question asked Dempsey turned to look back up at his statue. "I don't expect an answer. Just...think on it."

"Okay." Naruto looked at Helen, Deneve and Flora. "We better get going now."

"Yeah." said Helen who nodded affirmatively. "That was why we came here in the first place." placing a hand on Naruto's shoulder Helen began to guide him out of the room. Deneve and Flora kept their eyes on Dempsey though as they followed them out.

"I'll see you again soon 'Tank'. Hopefully tomorrow!" Naruto called out as they were entering the corridor.

"I'll be looking forward to it." Dempsey called out in reply. He looked down at his gauntlet covered hand and clenched it, "I'll be looking forward to it." he quietly repeated to himself. With one last look over his shoulder Dempsey nodded to himself, almost reassuringly, exhaled and closed his eyes. Not long after he started to fade away until he was no longer there.

The whirring noise of the generator continued to fill the room.