Destined: 2 Be Continued

14. Jeremiah Awakens

Jeremiah awoke in Dreamy, a strange world very unlike his own. He was lying down on a street, but no cars could be seen anywhere, fortunately. Jeremiah stood up and saw Marionette, standing there patiently. "Good morning, evening, afternoon, and nothing in between," Jeremiah greeted his friend, the normal greeting in Dreamy. Jeremiah thought it was quite long, but no one in Dreamy asked for his opinion. "Good," Marionette responded, greatly shortening the greeting. Jeremiah rubbed his knuckles, which had been used most prominently in the fight with Locust. It was strange, however, that his injuries were shown in Dreamy, rather than when he woke up.

"You know what this is," Marionette asked strangely, punctuating with a comma rather than a question mark. Jeremiah nodded. "Ursa Magnus took way too much power to pull off, sending us into a comatose state. And on a fake, too..." the two shook their heads in disappointment. There was another problem however. "Also, we only have one combination left," the two finished in unison. 

If the two combined one more time, Marionette would unravel once they defused. There would be an explosion of light, blinding anyone within three miles who had their eyes open. It also would cause Jeremiah great pain--there was a chance Marionette's unravelling would make him feel like his insides were being torn apart. Such was with the creators of shadow people. 

Jeremiah looked to the ground, then back at Marionette's smooth, featureless face. "Well, let's go for a walk," he spoke simply. The two went for a stroll on the empty street of Dreamy, wherever the heavens they were in the strange world. There was nothing better to do in Dreamy, especially if you were currently comatose. The street never ended, and nothing ever came up on the road, so Jeremiah and Marionette could bore themselves awake. And that was what they did, after thirteen hours of endless walking. 

Jeremiah slowly opened his eyes and rose up. He saw Heather waiting above him, tapping her foot incessantly. She looked down at him angrily and said, "You know, I said no fainting, but going into a coma isn't anything better. Your heart stopped twice, yesterday and four days ago." Jeremiah was less concerned about the fact that his heart stopped twice and more about the fact that it happened three days ago. "How long have I been--"

"A week, Jeremiah. You've been sleeping for a week. And don't you do that again, or I'll make sure you're dead." Jeremiah ignored Heather's blatant death threat and sat up in his bed. He was fully clothed, gladly, in his cargo pants and t-shirt. He stood and walked out of the room before Heather could say a word.

"Ah, good that the mighty Jeremiah can grace us with his--" August, who was sitting at the dinner table with Belle, began before Jeremiah cut him off. "Where's Marionette?" he asked. August and Belle looked between each other, then back at Jeremiah. They shrugged. Marionette must not have appeared yet. Oh, well, Jeremiah thought, grabbing a cinnamon roll and sitting down. Marionette would appear soon.

Marionette did appear, sitting right next to Jeremiah. Alex, who was just walking in, jumped at the sight of the shadow person, holding his hand to his chest. Jeremiah snickered. "Dude, you've been comatose for a week. What happened?" Alex asked, making Jeremiah cross off "hear 'dude' and 'comatose' in the same sentence" from his Things I'll Never Do list. Jeremiah turned to Alex, who clearly needed a lesson in heroic fainting.

"Whenever Marionette and I combine, we become Shadow Jeremiah, who is just a way more powerful version of me. Whenever we defuse from ol' S.J., I faint. When S.J. becomes a bear and combines with a magic golden bear, we kind of exceed the limit for a normal faint. Henceforth, I go into a coma and try to regenerate my energy," he answered. Alex frowned, trying to understand, then grabbed himself a cinnamon roll and sat down on Jeremiah's left. 

"Why do we have anything other than cinnamon rolls?" Belle asked, changing the subject and the mood in the room.

"For guests," Marionette supplied.

Penny walked in, clearly engrossed in a book a normal person, like a bodybuilder or firefighter, wouldn't be able to carry. "This is weird," she muttered fantastically, grabbing a cinnamon roll and sitting down without even looking up from her book. Alex asked her what, exactly, was weird.

"Some magic chemistry stuff," she waved off, her eyes widening at the magic chemistry on the page. She finally closed the book, looking up at the others. "What's going on?" she asked. 

"Nothing," Jeremiah answered. "I'm awake now, but nothing else." Penny shrugged and went back to her book. Nothing interesting was happening, and that ticked Jeremiah off. He really wanted to get at the real Locust, who was hiding somewhere, plotting and growing stronger and wiser. It ground Jeremiah's gears to know that he had wasted a combination on a fake, and that there was nothing he could do about it.

Jeremiah looked down and saw something interesting. "What's that?" he asked, pointing to Alex's belt. Alex looked down at his belt and pulled out a two-foot-long bar, made of Berserker's Iron. "This is the staff August made for me," he answered. The bar extended to six feet long, the one-foot Berserker's Iron bars being at each end, and the other parts being made out of Machinist's Bronze.

"Amazing," Jeremiah muttered. Belle hadn't summoned up a weapon that cool--just a spear made of Spectral Onyx, which he had used for a year before realizing that Marionette could turn his hands into scythes. In Jeremiah's personal opinion, hand scythes trumped Spectral Onyx spears.

All this talk about weapons gave Jeremiah an idea for something to do. "Hey, Alex," Jeremiah asked, "Do you want to do some practice? I'll go easy on you."

Alex considered this proposition for a moment. "How about you don't go easy on me, and I'll see just how strong I've gotten from Windigo's training?"

That sounded like a good idea to Jeremiah. "Deal."