Nevermind, I just had an epiphany.

And that's one for the road

So I actually finished this chapter. That gets all of the background out of the way.

_____________

Tag's mind was buzzing.

"Jed...Jed...Jed..."

He felt like he had heard the name before, but then he felt like he hadn't. It was only after some time thinking that he realized that he was still standing in front of Jed.

"'scuse me," he muttered, as he quickly ran off.

"Jed...Jed...Someone's got to know who that is..." Was running through tag's mind after leaving.

Then his epiphany came.

"Soro! If he doesnt know it, it doesn't exist."

As luck would have it, Soro wasn't that far away. Two minutes and a server change later, Tag found him.

"Hey Soro"

"Yeah?"

"I've got a question"

"And I probably have an answer. What is it?"

"Do you have any idea who a guy named Jed is?"

There was about five minutes worth of silence, as Soro just stared at Tag. 

Finally, he broke it.

"You...Have...No...Idea...Who...Jed...Is?"

"err, no."

"God, if ignorance is a bliss, then you're in heaven"

"Well, heaven is haven with and extra E-"

"Nevermind then, I guess I'll just have to tell you"

But Soro had another question.

"How long have you been here again?"

"A month or so."

Soro was already in haven before Tag made it to the rescue camp.

And Soro wove the tale of Jedediah.

"He started out mortal; he started out with proto gear, like everyone else. But then he kept working up, eventually becoming a notorious gunslinger. He became a hero to an audience of thousands."

"He even became part of the levelers"

"The levelers?"

"They are a very small group; only the finest get invited. They explore the frontiers of the clockworks. Jed eventually became one of the chief officers there. Some had even thought that he should have been one of the leaders."

"But then it all came crashing down"

Tag was taken aback by this. Jed's story almost seemed like a fairytale. How could it fall?

"He went on a mission, and was the only one to come back alive, due to the fact that he was a gunslinger and could avoid the main part of the battle. He ended up retreating, and the mission failed. He left the levelers soon afterwards. Overcome by shame, he has almost vanished. He's now a hero to an audience of none."

The story was about to make Tag's mind burst. He had talked to an actual ex-hero? He, just an average spiral knight?

"I've...got to go." He mumbled, dazed and confused.

"well, okay then." replied Soro, raising an eyebrow at his friend's sudden sickness. "Are you sure you're not going to vomit? It sucks when it happens in the middle of the battle."

"I'm...Fine." Tag said, stumbling off into the distance.

Jed was having a maddening time of his own.

There was Hale, a nice guy who he had actually helped train in the levelers.

But what he was saying was on a whole different level.

"Jed, you have to rejoin"

"No. I'm not rejoining. Never in a million years am I going back there"

"But the levelers need more-"

"More what?

Jed was raising his voice.

"More people to die? More people to be the unfortunate ones that don't? Is that it?"

"But Jed, what about-"

Jed understood.

"What about her. She's dead, I saw her die with my own eyes"

"But we can avenge her-"

"And get ourselves killed in the process? What will that do? Nothing! Dying for the "would"s and "shoulds" isn't dying for anything. It's the waste of a life."

Jed got even madder.

"Have you actually seen a person die? Have you then seen your self not die? Have you then seen that there was very little that let you live and let the other person leave this world? Have you actually seen someone be dragged of by monsters, like cerno, to get eaten?"

"You haven't, have you."

"So what makes you think you can comprehend this? This isn't school, where the answers are in your textbook. This is reality."

Jed started to slowly walk away. 

"Don't try and convince me until you can understand that."

Stumbling onto a hero is hard. Stumbling onto a hero again is even harder. Stumbling onto a hero again while he is mad is really, really, hard. In fact, you should congratulate yourself, as long as you are not completely scared.

Then there was Tag, who got the third option.

Seeing Tag bumble to him, Jed just simple picked him up, and held him until Tag could tell where his feet were.

"Who ARE you, anyway?" Jed impolitley asked.

"So, so, sorry Mr. Jedediah-"

"Jed"

"I'm still amazed that you're a hero."

"You consider me a hero? Congrats, you're the only one who does."

He then sat down, with Tag following him.

"The only one out of the zero that should."

"So are you just going to sit around and do nothing?"

"What?"

Jed was stunned. What was this kid thinking?

"Sitting around isn't going to help you. You've got to go and do something."

"You can't keep running from your past."

Jed, started to survey the town square. Then, he cracked a wicked grin.

"Hey kid, how would you like to see a big chunk of the clockworks, and possibly more?"

It was Tag's turn to be shocked.
Instantly, Jed conjured up a blue   pass.

"this is an elevator pass. It grants you unlimited level access, so you can go exploring as much as you want."

"Bring anyone you like, I can still reap the benifits of once being a member of the levelers."

"We'll leave by morning, with whoever you like."

"You're going to love it; no one knows the clockworks better than the levelers."

____________________

Okay, I've got a couple of things I need to say.

This is where the story really kicks off. It's alot easier incorporating elements here compared to the intro.

I'm not sure what to do with Soro. I want him to come along, yet he doesn't seem like a fighter. As such, I'll let you decide.

A: He goes with Jed and Tag
B: He doesn't, and stays at haven.

Sorry about the delay, this chapter took forever to write.

__________________________

Jed's offer simply wasn't one you could refuse.

The ability to see the deepest depths of clockworks, which only a handful of people see?

It also took him around 5 minutes to round up everyone he needed.

"Hey, Soro"

"What now?"

"Do you want to go explore the deepest parts of the clockworks with Jed?"

Soro had a face a disbelief alot like the one after just doing a spit-take: stunned just belief, while just staring at the person who said. 

"You're kidding, right?"

"Nope, I have the pass right here."

He wove the blue pass in front of Soro's face.

"So are you coming?"

"Do you think I wouldn't?"

And it was settled.

Though he didn't show it, perhaps Jed was the most excited for this: He arrived long before Tag and Soro.

"I'll take it you're ready?"

Tag nodded in return.

Jed the directed toward Soro.

"Friend of your's?"

To which tag also replied to.

"Now, let's see what you have"

Now tag noticed something about Jed: In his belt were three guns. Though you could only see the tops, they were still recognizable: Polaris, Blitzneedle, and Biohazard. On his back was a backpack, and he also had a canteen.

Inspecting Tag, he seemed to have a face of someone who certainly got what he expected: Dusker cap, Dusker coat, and a   Sealed sword.

Aside from just "Hmmmmmmm...," there was no comment though.

Jed's reaction to Soro was completley different.

"You've got nothing and ascended calibur? Do you even get past tier 1 with that?"

Though he tried to keep it a secret, Tag could see that Soro was taking a beating from this.

Eventually, Jed noticed this too, and fumbled an apology, "Err.. Sorry about that. At least you have an ascended cali-" he stopped midsentence, his eyes looking toward Tag. 

"-Anyways, it's much ado about nothing, so why waste our time? We have some exploring to do." Jed interrupted.

As he started messing around with the elevator computer, Tag could see that Jed wasn't missing a beat. He could probably do this in his sleep. 

"One more thing, and...Emberlight, here we come!"

As he looked at Jed, tag noticed something that almost scared him.

Jed's eyes were different.

They were hungry for blood, yet they were civil.

They were the eyes of a modern psycho.

As they reached Emberlight, it turns out that they weren't alone. There was another knight there, a dark blue.

"My name is kantint," the knight stated to Jed.

"And mine is Jed," He responded, "and if you don't do terrible, you might be able to see things upon your wildest dreams."

"That all depends on what exactly you have in mind. It's not going to be fun if your great idea is to burn us to death."

"Sugarcoating must be your favorite thing."

As Jed was inspecting Kantint, he realized that this person might actually be a soid bomber. Mercurial demo set? Check. Valiance? Electron Vortex? Check. Big blast bomb? Ehh, but  okay.

"Well, nice of you to come aboard anyways."

"You might have to stretch your definition of that"

Jed only raised an eyebrow towards this.

When  they reached floor 19, everyone seemed to notice something else: they were back down to three. Tag and Soro were already trying to make sense of this.

"Maybe he was just out of energy..."

"Genius. Oh, except for the part that he wasn't at low energy."

"Right..."

"I think that it has something to do with that last thing he said in emberlight."

"So how'd he escape from the elevator between floors?"

"God, I have no idea, but it's the best we have so far.

Little did they know that behind them, in the shadows, Kantint was watching.

"Alright, you two finished your rhetorical dialogue?" Called out Jed. "We kindof have some incredibly dangerous dungeons to go through." 

"Alright, we're coming."

An when they finally crossed the force field, that was when Jed felt alive for the first time since that fateful mission.

"Now this is when the real fun begins."

Jed didn't miss a beat when exploring the level He seemed to know where every trap was, and knew how to plan for them all.

"Okay. I know that two gunpuppies will appear on opposite sides of the room. Because of my range, I'll take those two out. I want you two to go north, as several mecha knights will spawn there. One person will attack from the east, the other from the south. This will push them into the northeast corner. Then, try and inflict as much damage as possible. Since they're in a group, it will be easy taking those out."

Even arena didn't faze him.

"When we step on it, two types of monsters shall appear. Only kill off one type. Then, kill off the type that spawns. Then, kill off the type after that, and only the original type will be left. Then kill of that type and the next to, and we'll advance."

Indeed, the floor behind them was almost completely leveled.

Eventually, they reached one level that stretched on for miles. As Jed looked ahead, his face turned grim.

"It's way to long to do in one day. We'll have to take a break somewhere in the middle."

And so they continued, fight after fight. 

At one point, after hitting a part switch, Tag and Soro were about to continue, until Jed stopped them. 

"Hold on a second..." Jed muttered, while clearing away some leaves. Behind the veil of leaves and branches was a clearing.

"We'll camp here." Jed declared. "Just give me a second to get this set up.."

Almost instantly, he conjured up a tent. He then took a bunch of sticks, put the in a pile, fiddled with Polaris, and then took a shot. The sticks proceeded to burst into flames. 

"Someone will have to keep watch. Who wants to start?"

Soro raised his hand.

"Okay, you will go first."

The second question was a bit out of place. 

"By the way, what's your name?"

"Soro."

"Ah, okay then. I'll go next, and tag'll round it off."

And, while Soro stood there, Tage and Jed went into the tent.

Tag suddenly jolted up, straight out of a dream. Around him, he could see Soro, but Jed was nowhere to be seen.

"Guess I should get started with my shift..." Tag muttered to himself, while practically forcing himself out the door. 

The sight, though, was one that stunned him.

Sitting on a trunk, facing a nearby cliff, was Jed, just sitting there, not making a sound. The only time Tag had ever seen him that quiet was when they first met. 

"J-Jed?" Tag nervously called out.

Jed's response was also bizzare.

"I passed by the hot corner, named for when cerno managed to fend off the whole world from it. He's probably dead now, after being dragged off by monsters. It's amazing how you don't miss people until you can't. 

Why do we have to go through here? We are disrupting the natural environment, and it in turn is disrupting us. It solves nothing." 

Gesturing toward the tent, Jed simply stated, "Go back to the tent. Come out when I go to the tent."

When Tag returned to the tent, he immediately shook Soro awake.

"You won't believe it!"

"Did you finally decide to let people sleep?"

"No, but..."

And Tag recounted his even with Jed.

Soro, however, didn't seem surprised.

"I've thought about this for a while, and I think this confirms it:

Jed has bipolar disorder. He'll be happy at one point, then real moody at another. That's why he's like this now. It seems as though he's happiest when he's in battle. You could say that he lives for the moment, and not the future nor the past. When he's not living in the moment, those things catch up with him."

Tag was shocked. Jed, having bipolar disorder? It seemed ridiculous, until you took a good look at it.

"And that's that." Soro concluded, and they both went back to sleep.

They managed to get a bit of sleep, until they were rudley awakend by the sound of a gunshot.

"You can't hide forever, you'll have to show yourself sometime." Jed yelled.

Tag and Soro got out of the tent just in time to see the monster emerge, and were surprised that it wasn't a monster.

It was a knight. The knight was wearing and angelic set with  flower accessory. In her hands was a Levathian Blade and a heavy plate shield.

The most surprised of all was Jed, who honestly looked like he was about to explode.

"Sun, why didn't you tell us anything? I was about to kill you! It's not exactly fun when I shoot you in the foot in a place in which you have to walk everywhere"

Tag had noticed how quickly Jed's personality had switched.

"S-Sorry Jed..." Sun muttered. 

"c'mon, speak up a bit."

"Fine Jed, I'm sorry I wasn't able to tell that your secret place was occupied."

Noticing Tag and Soro, Sun then switched the discussion.

"Do they know me?"

"No, I don't think so."

Idicating toward Sun, Jed proceeded to lecture them.

"This is sun. She's a member of the levelers, and joined shortly after me, and is has been there active for almost the longest time. She studdies monsters in the clockworks."

"Now Jed, why are you down here?"

"For fun"

"For fun? I doubt you would've said the same even a week ago."

Sun's watch started beeping, interrupting the conversation.

"It's Hale." She said, while initiating the call. 

"Hello Sun, it's Hale, just wanted to call and check on-Wait, is that Jed?"

"The only Jed"

"You're finally back?"

"I'm doing this for fun now."

"You can never think one way about fun, can you?

Anyways, hopefully, I'll be able to have our parties meet up. Perphaps in the Frontier."

"We'll see that as we get there." Jed repplied, and Sun hung up.

"Anyways, Tag, it's now your turn to keep watch now."

And Tag stayed up, as everyone else, including Sun, went back into the tent.

I was going to make this longer, but I felt that the final sentence was too strong.

_________________________________

Jed raised an eyebrow to the stranger's remark. However, it was quickly flattened.

"Mark, eh? Never heard of it."

Jed turned toward sun.

"Sun, have you heard of anyone called mark?"

Sun shook her head.

"There's no Mark that I know of in the levelers."

"Mark" didn't seem to care.

"Someday, you will know my name! I will become the greatest knight ever!"

Jed gave a look of extreme annoyance.

"That's really great. In fact, why don't you start by getting out of my face?"

Jed fired his blitz needle, and it began to rain.

As Mark was running away, he still had one last boast.

"This won't be the last you see of me!"

Jed had a quick comeback.

"Yeah, the next time is when I kick your @&&"

As Mark was running away, Jed turned to the rest of the group.

"God, I hate that guy"

Finally, they reached the headquarters of the levelers. The building was massive. It seemed to stretch far into the sky, and almost looked like it could go on forever. As they entered, they were greeted by Hale.

"Hey guys, sorry I couldn't come with you, but... Glad to see you're back, Jed!"

Jed simply responded to it by tuning it down.

"Just don't get your hopes up, it will only come crashing down if I refuse."

Hale could only sigh to this

"Typical Jed..."

Then, hale's head almost literally lit up. 

"Hey guys, I have an idea. Follow me"

As they followed Hale into the computer room, Tag and Soro were awestruck.

"Look how many screens it has!" Tag excitedly whispered. "It could control the whole clockworks!"

"I wish haven had something like this..." remarked Soro, almost drooling at the master computer.

Meanwhile, Hale was explaining plans to Jed and Sun.

"See, here's the thing. This gremlin colony in sector A-27," he indicated toward a dark red spot on the map, "Has recently had its king usurped. The new king wants to rule over all of the knights, and just be evil. We want you to give him some of our advice. Now, normally, you would pass the Joplin Gulch, but since you already did, I'll just change it so-"

Something alerted Jed in the last part. "Joplin Gulch? We didn't pass through there."

Hale was in denial. 

"No, you had to."

"Nope. We passed through Kina Roads."

"Then Something's definetley wrong...," Hale said, in a grave voice. Almost instantly, he conjured up an image of Joplin Gulch. In the picture, there were  several dead wolvers. However, there were holes around the corpses' bodies. They strongly resembled bullet holes."Go and check that out too. We've got to see what's causing that. There are no offiial gunslingers in the frontier, except for you."

Jed was lost in thought. He felt like he knew what was causing that. However, the memory was almost from a completely different world, and Jed could barley remember it.

"Bide, ride, cyanide, kyde... God, what is it?" He angrily thought. 

However, Soro had a question.

"Ummm... When you mentioned "Give them our advice," what did you mean?"

Hale responded to this in an almost scholarly fashion.

"It's quite simple, actually. When we give them our advice, it means that we kill them."

Clear

___________________
Tag was originally shocked. Going out and killing them? How could that be...

Then, a vice ran out in his head, clear and sharp.

Why.

"Why what?" Tag thought in his mind.

Why are you panicking?

"It's killing"

You kill things all the time. What difference does it make?

"But it's not random, it's an actuall-"

How did you get that weapon that you're holding right now?

Glancing at his now bloodstained sealed sword, tag knew that he had lost.

Perhaps it was his sigh, perhaps it was the look, but it became apparent that there was something wrong with Tag.

But when Jed called out, "Tag? What's wrong?" in a distant voice, Tag could only respond with an emotionless "Nothing."

By the middle of the night, the headquarters was so silent, you could drop a pin and hear it. 

That is, except for the one knight that never slept.

Kantint emerged from the shadows, his face stricken with greed. He had his eyes set on everything. 

As he approached one scientist, he noticed that he had a number of rare equips. Scarlet shield, darkfang shield... They would fetch for a very high price. 

As he delicately obtained the shields with the skilled of someone who had spent their whole life doing so, he almost considered killing the scientist. But no, that would solve nothing. As he was about to find someone else, He heard something coming from the corridor nearby. An actual person... This was someone that he would have to follow, as it is impossible to consistently dodge something that you can't see.

Who was awake could have been obvious from a mile away. The cowboy hat, the sullen eyes...it was obviously Jed. Kantint knew he had to be careful, or he'd be full of holes.

As he was following Jed, praying that he wouldn't figure out that he was being followed, he saw Jed make a turn for the main computer. What could he be doing this late on that computer?

As Jed sat down, he seemed to almost automatically seep into concentration, Kantint almost let out a sigh of relief. 

That was when he knew he had blown it.

For Jed quickly changed what he was doing, and instead switched to something else.

At first Kantint was confused, as it just seemed to be a bunch of shapes, with several blinking dots, two of them in the center and very close to each other.

Then he understood. 

The screen was a map.

Te dots represented veryone that was there. 

The two dots in the center represented two knights. 

One was Jed.

The other was himself.

Instantly, Jed swung around, knocking Kantint to the ground.  Gripping a Polaris in his hand, he was swelling with anger, yet doing a good job of hiding it. 

"So you decided to invade this place? You must be pretty cocky. So what was it that you were doing?"

Though Kantint could not speak, as the blow had damaged his jaw, the shields on his back told the whole story. 

Jed's anger erupted, like a massive volcano. 

"SO YOU LITTLE THIEVING SWINE DECIDED TO TRY AND STEAL FROM US, DIDN'T YOU? WE WORK HERE TO DISCOVER GROUNDBREAKING THINGS, AND WHAT DO YOU WANT TO USE THOSE THINGS FOR? YOUR LITTLE THIEVING $&@!"

"EMPTY YOUR POCKETS. NOW. EVERYTHING."

And so Kantint did, revealing several types of bombs, the shields that he had stolen and, interestingly, a pocket watch.

Before Jed could continue shrieking, or worse, the main hub shortly became flooded with people. It seemed as though Jed's screaming had woken the whole place up.

As Hale pushed his way past the giant mass of the mob, he seemed to have no clear idea what was going on, as his face was only that of mild curiosity. 

"Jed? What happened?" Hale tried to yell over the crowd.

Jed simply held up the shields and that was enough. Hale looked like he had just rejects a punch to the face, and could barley form words, like it was his' jaw that was busted.

"Why that...Little...You're going to wish...you never..."

However, Sun interrupted, acting as the voice of reason. 

"Guys, why don't we have Kantint go with Jed?"

Jed and Hale were both taken aback by this.

"Him? Join Jed? Are you insane?"

"No, I feel he could be a great asset." 

"But what if he tries to steal from us?"

"Why would he? He would be with you guys, there's no reason for him to steal."

Hale and Jed backed down in defeat.

"Fine," they grumbled. 

Sun then approached the still floored Kantint. 

"Congrats. We are going to have top doctors fix your jaw, so you don't stay mute forever. Also,"

And she stuck out her hand, in the form of a handshake.

"Welcome to the team."