thanks for your patience while art fight was going on! i did a ton of slugterra stuff so check out https://artfight.net/~CyanSparks :)
~~~~~~~~
"Yeah, that's okay. You guys can keep chatting, just catch me up later," Alana told the gang. They all nodded, seeming unbothered - Sam wanting to talk with Alana wasn't exactly anything out of the ordinary. She was an honorary older sister at this point.
Alana stepped out of the room and closed the door behind her. She expected to just stop in the hallway to chat with Sam, but Sam walked her down the hall to the third (and last) room, which was where Kord and Pronto had been prior to rejoining Eli, Trixie, and Alana. There was a bed and a futon, and both Alana and Sam sat on the futon once Sam closed the door.
"Is everything okay?" Alana asked, confused as to why whatever they were going to talk about warranted this much privacy.
"Yeah, sorry, everything's fine, I just didn't want to talk in front of everyone," Sam said, bouncing her leg nervously. Alana saw that as a sign that everything wasn't fine, but she didn't comment. "Well, Junjie still has some minor injuries that didn't get healed from whatever Boon Doc shot he had earlier."
"But he walked all the way here from the King of Sling's!" Alana said worriedly, her heart dropping. "He didn't seem like he was still hurt. I think? I wasn't really... focused. But Trixie was there too, I'm sure she would've seen. She would've said something. Mage has literally just been on my shoulder, he knew I had her, why wouldn't he say anything?"
Sam looked a little relieved at Alana's reaction, which Alana didn't quite understand, but she didn't question it.
"He, um- I'm not saying you did anything wrong," Sam began.
"That's not a great start to whatever you're about to say," Alana laughed nervously, glancing down at Mage, who shrugged, looking just as genuinely confused as Alana felt.
"Sorry," Sam sighed. "It's a weird situation. He purposefully didn't say anything because it's you who had Mage. He didn't want to ask you for help. He seems to think you're scared of him, or at the very least don't like him."
Alana winced and sighed, letting her face drop into her hands. Guilt immediately gnawed at her - if Junjie "seemed" to think she was scared of him, instead of knowing she was scared of him, he clearly didn't remember his attack on the West. So as far as he was aware, Alana was a stranger who disliked him for no reason. Or at the very least, for attacking her and her friends, which clearly wasn't his doing.
She was scared of Junjie. It was the same kind of instinctive fear anyone would feel when facing someone they knew had done them harm in the past, regardless of whether or not it had been purposeful. The same instinctive fear that a smaller part of her brain felt when she was staring down the barrel of a blaster, even though she knew that with her skills and her team she'd be okay.
But that didn't mean she disliked him. From what Alana had been able to see of the real Junjie, and not the possessed version, he was kind and passionate about keeping others safe from the Goon, which was a goal she could get behind. It certainly didn't mean she would ever deny him medical care.
"So from your reaction I guess you've already got an idea what he's on about?" Sam asked gently.
Unsure how to respond and ashamed she'd made Junjie feel like he couldn't ask her for help, Alana just shrugged and nodded, keeping her face in her hands.
"He told me about how you were acting around him. It sounded like Trixie had to guide you back here from the King's mansion. From the sound of it, you were dissociating the whole way. And even when you got back here, he said you seemed jittery," Sam continued. "Jumpy, and you wouldn't look at him when you talked to him."
Finally, Alana lifted her head, looking up at Sam. She was relieved to see only concern, not anger or discontent, on Sam's face, even though she knew Sam would never act like that anyway.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make him feel like that," Alana insisted. "I swear I would have healed him if he asked."
"I don't doubt that," Sam assured. "You don't need to apologize, Alana. You're always so nice to everyone, but you don't need to be. It's okay if you don't like a person-"
"It's not that I don't like him, it's just-" Alana's voice caught in her throat. "It's just..."
Telling the gang that they may need to be ready to publicly acknowledge the existence of other sets of caverns was one thing, but actually starting to do that was another, even when it was just Sam, easily the civilian that Alana trusted the most.
"He- he k-"
It felt like her brain was short-circuiting. She couldn't say it. Couldn't say what he'd done, when he was the Dark Slinger.
"He. Did. Some bad things. When he was possessed," Alana finally managed. "I know that was pretty much a different person. But he's still him, and that'll take some getting used to."
Sam nodded. Alana could tell that she knew there was more to unpack there than just "bad things," though.
"I get that. But I'm worried about how you were reacting to him being with you and Trixie. It sounded like you were barely there, Alana."
"I don't know what you want me to say," Alana admitted, slumping back into the cushions of the futon. "I was barely there. Some of the townspeople were being jerks and then it was just me and Trixie and him, and it freaked me out. But I'm obviously not like that now."
"I know," Sam said, in that patient, understanding voice that Alana both loved and hated. "But that doesn't change the fact that it happened. It usually takes something pretty serious for a person to shut down like that. I just want you to know that if he, maybe, did something when he wasn't possessed, you can come to me or the gang. You don't need to feel obligated to share your space with him just because he's someone in need. It doesn't always have to be you five."
"He didn't do anything while he wasn't possessed," Alana insisted immediately. She didn't want Junjie getting a bad reputation less than a day into living in this realm because she was caught up on something from a decade ago. "I mean, I haven't been around him a lot, but he's been fine. I promise."
With a sigh, Sam rested her head back against the wall of the room. She stared up at the ceiling as if it would be able to reveal what she wanted.
"I think there's more to it than that," Sam finally admitted. "But I don't know what else to say."
Alana laughed bitterly, staring down at her hands.
"I don't either, if that helps," she said. "You've never done anything that's made me think I can't trust you. It's not a trust thing. It's... it's just me. I'm scared. There's a lot of things that have changed in the last couple days. It's just gonna get worse, I think. I don't know how to go about it. But it's fine. I'll figure it out."
"Dissociating in the middle of town isn't fine, Alana," Sam argued. "You-"
Alana suddenly frowned and got to her feet, holding up a hand to silence Sam. The medical student fell silent, but raised an eyebrow and watched Alana in confusion.
"Did you hear that?" Alana said quietly, looking down at the floor.
"Very funny, nice try-" Sam began, but Alana waved her hand again, cutting her off.
"No, for real, listen."
The two fell silent. A couple heartbeats passed, then both of them heard it: raised voices coming from the ground floor of the house. They were faint enough that Alana couldn't tell what was being said, but it was definitely more than one person.
"Was anyone else here when you got here?" Alana asked, resting her hand on the handle of her blaster and starting for the door. Sam got to her feet and followed after her.
"No, it was just Siobhan, and all she was doing was making dinner," she said. "I barely even saw anyone on the way here, people are either with the rest of the Bonnie Springs team or further into town."
Alana carefully opened the door, peeking down the hall. She could hear the voices more clearly now, and while one of them was definitely Siobhan, there were several others, all sounding like adults. She and Sam started down the hall, and as the voices increased in volume, the other bedroom doors opened.
The first was Junjie's, on Alana's left, and she could have screamed in frustration when she instinctively jumped at his sudden appearance. A brief rush of energy, quick as a blink, rushed through her, and she wasn't sure if he saw the momentary blue glow of her hands.
He wasn't even in all his armors and furs, just the long-sleeved shirt he wore beneath them. He hardly looked threatening. She gritted her teeth and focused on the other door, where the gang was now emerging.
"What's going on down there?" Trixie asked, leading the way out of the room. The rest of the gang followed her, all tense with their blasters at the ready.
"I don't know, but someone's not happy," Alana noted. She took another step toward the staircase at the end of the hall, but paused, unholstering her blaster and loading Mage.
She turned and faced Junjie, who was at the back of the group, now lingering with Sam. She held up her blaster, making it clear that it was a healer in the barrel.
"I don't know what's up down there, but having bruised ribs definitely won't help," she said, keeping her voice level. It was short and to the point, but it was definitely the most normal she'd been able to speak to him.
Junjie seemed to notice. His shoulders relaxed a bit, and he smiled softly.
"You're probably right," he said. Alana nodded and the rest of the gang stood aside, clearing a path.
She fired Mage, not even bothering to use the accelerator for something as easy to handle as bruised ribs- something she so easily could have fixed hours ago. The white Boon Doc released a wave of white healing light, flooding the hall for a moment before returning to protoform.
Alana blinked spots from her vision, bending down to scoop up Mage and setting her on her left shoulder. Junjie took a tentative deep breath, and sighed with relief when it didn't seem to hurt at all. He rested a hand on his side and nodded to Alana in thanks.
"I appreciate it," he said.
"No problem," Alana managed. "Any time."
And she really meant it. She'd have to talk to Junjie alone later, to try to even begin to explain that if it seemed she had a problem with him, it was something she had to work through, and nothing he could control.
But that was a conversation that could wait until they found out who was giving their lovely host grief.
Unwilling to let Eli be first in any line of defense when he still looked like he could use a nap, Alana led the group down the stairs, plans already forming in her head for different scenarios - if they had to get Siobhan out, she vaguely remembered a side door, but she'd been in such a stupor the last time she was downstairs, she couldn't remember exactly where anything was.
The raised voices at least made finding the conflict easy. Alana groaned when she recognized the most prominent of them - the man from earlier, when she had been in town with Pronto.
"Well that was slugfire, so they're clearly not asleep right now! Go get them, Siobhan! We deserve some answers!"
"Oh, please, you just want to point fingers!" Siobhan fired back. "Get out of here, Lude, and take your posse with you! Those kids just saved all your butts, it'd do you well to learn some gratitude!"
"I love her," Trixie laughed, and Alana couldn't help but nod in agreement, pulling her hand away from her blaster as the group entered the house's entrance hall.
Siobhan stood at the open door, her arms crossed and back to the slingers. Outside, the Lumino light was slowly starting to fade, the usual golden glow of Gateway slowly fading into pink before it would eventually turn purple. The evening light illuminated a small crowd on Siobhan's lawn, and even though it was no army of ghoulslinging marauders, it still made Alana's heart sink.
The man from earlier- Lude, apparently- was at the front of the group, whatever peace the King of Sling talked into him clearly having worn off. Behind him stood at least two dozen more townspeople, all adults and all looking just as angry. Alana spotted multiple phones and cameras being held up and fought the urge to roll her eyes. Whatever was going down, it was probably already on the SlugNet.
"What's going on?" Eli called, starting forward. But once the crowd caught sight of him, their voices raised again, and Alana quickly grabbed his arm. She gently pulled him back, staying at the front of the group as Siobhan sighed and stepped away.
"I'm sorry, you all, they won't go away," she explained. "They're all just wound up and looking for someone to blame, they got no idea what they're talking about."
Alana nodded and stepped out onto Siobhan's front porch, the rest of the gang filing behind her, with the exception of Sam. The medical student stayed in the doorway next to Siobhan, reaching for the pager on her belt, likely to contact the other Bonnie Springs personnel.
Alana tried to stop the panic rising in her throat. Fighting some ghoulslingers was easy. She knew she was in the right and she knew she could take them down. But she couldn't exactly slug a civilian, or at least she shouldn't, and that knowledge made her feel powerless.
"We're not looking for anything, we know exactly what we're on about!" Lude snapped. He took a step forward, jabbing his finger up at Alana. "You kids messed up and could've gotten someone killed!"
"We got attacked by ghouls when you said they were all gone!"
"Those slingers clearly weren't from around here, and you can't survive long undetected in the Outland reach, so where did they come from? Where did he come from?"
Junjie winced and took a hesitant step backward, glancing at Eli worriedly. The Shane sighed and took a deep breath before stepping forward again. His hands were raised placatingly, and to Alana, it looked like he was trying to soothe a wild animal.
"Everyone calm down, let's talk this out like people," he said, forcing a smile even though Alana doubted he felt very cheerful. "We know things didn't go perfectly. We wish it had, too. But-"
"And you, you're the worst of it!"
It was like a lightswitch flicked. Eli's face fell, as did his hands, at Lude's comment. His eyebrows creased, and he scanned the crowd, seeming to just then truly notice the mass of discontent for what it was.
"Yeah!"
"You're the Shane, but you attacked us!"
"So when it's you, consequences just don't matter, is that it?"
"What, were you just getting Blakk out of the way so you could do whatever you wanted?"
"Will Shane never would have let this happen!"
Alana gasped sharply, glaring at the crowd before turning back to look at Eli, to comfort him, to support him, to do something. But her breath caught in her throat.
Eli took one step back, then another, almost behind Trixie now. His eyes were wide, his lips barely parted as if he wanted to say something in his defense but just couldn't. He'd already looked tired, but now all Alana could see was an exhausted slinger who was getting knocked down by the same people he'd risked his life for. They were accusing him of the unthinkable, of not caring about them, of attacking them purposefully, of letting them be in danger.
He finally closed his mouth and looked down in defeat, his raven hair covering his eyes. Even Burpy looked uncomfortable, his head lowered and red eyes staring blankly down at Eli's shoulder.
The sight of Eli Shane, always radiant in the face of danger and full of love for Slugterra and its people, looking so defeated by people who owed their lives to him, set righteous anger aflame in Alana's chest.
Alana stepped up to the edge of the porch, looking down at the angry crowd around her. She saw the cameras some of them held up and hoped that people all around Slugterra would hear.
"Do you even hear yourselves?!" she shouted over their angry cries. One by one, they fell silent. She was surprised at how level her voice sounded, but she didn't pause to think. "If you stopped and thought about what you're saying, you'd realize how ridiculous you sound!"
"What-?!" Lude began, but Alana paid him no attention.
"Is that how it is? We spent so long defending you all from Doctor Blakk! We almost died more times than I can count! And we did it, we won, and you all couldn't stop singing our praises! But the second we slip up and things go wrong again, we're the bad guys, right?"
"This wasn't just some little slip up!" a woman called. Alana met her gaze and within a second the woman looked away, but she still held up her phone, undoubtedly recording.
"You're right, it wasn't," Alana admitted. "But it still isn't what we wanted. How dare you accuse Eli of doing all this on his own, just doing whatever he wants because he's a Shane? Do you really think he would turn on you all after fighting so hard? He's so talented and dedicated, if he wanted to hurt Slugterra, he could have done it a hundred times over by now!"
By now the crowd in front of her was silent, but Alana didn't take that as a sign to stop.
"He was possessed. You can't even imagine what that was like for him. None of us can! He was forced to attack the people he loves, and you all have the audacity to say he did it on purpose?!" she cried. "How heartless are you? And to think he doesn't care about consequences! He's never used his name to his advantage, why would he start now? This whole time, we've been clear that we'll help rebuild and make sure everyone's okay, but you all wouldn't listen!
"And... and the marauders..."
Alana trailed off, taking deep breaths. She glanced back at Eli, who was now watching her with wide eyes. He shrugged, and Junjie stepped forward. He met Alana's gaze, and this time, Alana didn't flinch away. She kept her eyes on him as he nodded, urging her onward.
"The marauders- and him, Junjie..." Alana continued, her voice cracking and wavering for a moment.
But she turned back to face the crowd. Her heart thudded in her ears, but she knew if she stopped too long, her burst of energy and confidence would fade.
"They-they weren't from here. They- there's... there's more out there. Than just the 99 Caverns."
In any other situation, the crowd's switch from anger to utter confusion would have been funny. They were all glancing around at each other, seeing if they had heard Alana right, seeing if they were the only ones completely lost.
"The attackers were from the Eastern Caverns. It's- it's a set of caverns, just like this one, to the East of us, past the wall at the end of the Outland Reach. It's so far away, they needed a terraportal, like the Dark Bane," she explained. "That's why they needed the Fandangos, to keep it open. They were going to bring an army through, but we stopped them, even if we didn't manage to catch the Goon Doc that possessed Eli."
A few beats of silence passed, then the crowd erupted, shouting up at the gang, yelling at each other, asking each other if they had all just heard the same ridiculous claim.
"What. we're just supposed to take his word for it?" Lude yelled, pointing up at Junjie. "He could be saying anything! We've seen that terraportals can go anywhere, you expect us to believe there's a whole other set of caverns out there just because this guy said so? What's next, the Burning World?!"
That's kinda funny, Alana couldn't help but think. If this was their reaction to another set of caverns, she prayed Slugterrans never learned about the surface, if only for their own sanity.
"If what you're saying is true, how do we know he isn't here to infiltrate our caverns?!" a woman cried. "If there are other caverns, we can't trust them! Who knows what would happen if we let him stay!"
And maybe Alana should have seen it coming, or maybe it was just a burst of crowd mentality, but in that moment, shouts of agreement rippled through the crowd, and several people made distinctive steps toward the side of the porch Junjie was on, purpose clear in their demeanors.
Wrought with the knowledge that Junjie was not only unarmed but more tired and disoriented than any of them, Alana instinctively rushed to the front of the wooden porch, blocking the Eastern champion from any would-be assailants. Energy rushed through her limbs. A faint blue light spread down her skin and through the blue streaks in her hair, and her eyes glowed like a cat's in light.
It didn't matter that she still wasn't comfortable around Junjie. Deep down, without even realizing it, Alana had already started thinking of him as one of them, just another slinger trying to protect what he held dear.
"Don't even think about it," she said evenly, and that was all it took for the people to stand down. "There you all go again. Against someone before you even know them. If you all had this much courage when Blakk started to take over, maybe you wouldn't have needed a bunch of kids to save Slugterra."
Lude and the others at least had the decency to look ashamed at that.
"I guess you're only ready to fight when it's someone you know won't hurt you. Because you do all know that, deep down," Alana said, sighing. The blue light retreated. "You know we're here to help you all. It literally took a mind-possessing ghoul from another realm for one of us to try to hurt Slugterra. You're upset, but take all that emotion and put it into rebuilding and getting stronger to protect who you love."
Most of the crowd was still looking at Junjie with uncertainty, and Alana recalled the conversation she'd had with several of them in the King's mansion, when they'd accused her of knowing that the Dark Slinger was a threat that existed, even a realm away.
"It's not just Junjie's word for it, too," she began.
A hand rested on her shoulder. Alana glanced over and saw Trixie looking at her with uncertainty, her green eyes wide with worry. But Alana just smiled and shrugged.
The cat was already out of the bag, and she would gladly share some of the heat if it lightened the load on Eli and even Junjie.
"I knew about the Eastern Caverns before the marauders attacked," Alana admitted, squaring her shoulders. "I knew the Dark Slinger existed, but I didn't know he would come here. I know there's more beyond the 99 Caverns because there's another set of caverns besides the East. I'm from the Western Caverns, a realm of a hundred caverns to the west of our 99."
Most of the jaws in the crowd dropped. It was one thing to hear that a stranger was from somewhere unknown, but Alana was a known figure not only as a member of the Shane Gang, but from when she was young and under Will Shane's care. Plenty of people had speculated how she and Will were connected, but this definitely hadn't been a theory she'd ever heard.
"So, to answer your question of what would happen if someone from another realm lived here, here's your answer. They'd be just like you, and they might just help save your world, too. He's no more threat to the 99 Caverns than I am, even when me and my friends are getting swarmed like criminals. Junjie is the protector of the East. If ever there was a stranger to welcome into our caverns, it would be him."
Guardian slugs know I didn't do much to deserve it.
"What you said earlier was true. Will Shane never would have done this. But that's because he isn't here. We are. And despite what you tell yourselves to make it easy to be mad at someone, we're here to keep doing what we can to protect Slugterra."
Now the crowd had fallen silent, and silent they stayed. Alana took a shaky breath, unsure how to end what was definitely the most she had said to the public... ever.
"Right. Now, we're all very tired. And hungry. Excuse us."
Alana turned and shepherded the gang inside. She quickly shut the door behind her and sighed with relief, sagging down against the door and smiling when she heard the crowd begin to murmur and grow quieter as they left Siobhan's house.
"At least that could've gone worse!" she laughed, pushing off the door and looking up at her friends for the first time.
In a flash, Eli barreled forward, sweeping Alana up in a tight hug that she instinctively returned even though she wasn't expecting it.
"Whoa, okay- are you okay?" Alana laughed with uncertainty, looking at the others, who just stood there smiling in awe. Even Junjie looked impressed, reserved as he was. Sam was, admittedly, just gaping, though, clearly just as shocked as the rest of the public by Alana's admittance to also being from beyond the 99 Caverns.
"Yeah, I'm okay," Eli said into Alana's shoulder. "I- I just froze up out there. I couldn't get past the thought of them all hating me now. I couldn't think of anything to say. And you just, like, improved this great speech and calmed down a whole crowd."
He pulled away, and Alana was thrilled to see a genuine smile on his face.
"Thank you," he said.
"That was awesome," Trixie agreed. "I'm kinda sad I didn't get it on camera, but I have a feeling the SlugNet's gonna see all of that anyway."
"I was kinda hopin' one of them would make a move," Kord admitted, pounding a fist into his palm. "But you definitely handled it better."
"Well, if Pronto had time to maybe prepare a few words, he could have just as easily tamed the masses!" Pronto exclaimed, clearing his throat. "But, ahem, the end of your speech was right. Pronto is very famished."
"Right," Siobhan said blankly, looking at the gang as if she was seeing the group in a new light. She probably was. "Um. Right. Yeah, I've got pasta and bread and salad. Um."
The elderly cave troll sighed and ran a hand down her face before leading the way into the kitchen.
"I just can't keep up with the kids these days."