Fate of the Alphaverse

5 - Joseph

Joseph could have sworn a lead weight had settled itself in his stomach. He could hear Justin and Jacobi wheezily laughing about some crap in the back of the craft. It was his turn to drive. His could feel his sweating hands trembling on the steering wheel. They had picked Justin roughly one minute and fifty seven seconds after leaving Jenevieve's house. Despite having an extra body to fight with, Joseph still felt nervous. Knowing just how well the last meeting had gone made it all the harder to bear.

Joseph turned his head side to side to crack his neck. He shook out all his muscles, semi-involuntarily, to try and relieve his stress. He heard footsteps behind him, and a hand clapped on his shoulder. "My turnta drive, mate." Jacobi's gruff voice was comforting, and a welcome relief.

"Thanks, man." Joseph hopped into the passenger's seat and held the wheel steady whilst Jacobi got settled. Jacobi gave him a smile, and motioned for him to go. Joseph clambered out of the cockpit into the main body of the ship. Justin welcomed him heartily.

"Hey, mate!" Justin was Joseph's childhood friend, and study companion. When Joseph ran off to protect the princess, Justin stuck by him, and put up with the horrible mood he was constantly in. Justin's sandy brown hair was slicked to the side, and his tanned skin was lightly dusted with a smattering of freckles. His chiseled nose tilted slightly to the side, broken twice, or maybe three times, and never properly healed. His thin lips were constantly curved into a smirk, but this time, a genuine smile lit up his otherwise sharp features.

"Hi," Joseph murmured wearily. He collapsed into a comfy armchair next to Justin's. "How have you been?" Joseph was really too tired to care, but he asked anyway.

Justin practically read his mind. "I'm fine. The question is, how are you, Joe?" Justin kicked back in his chair, stretching out and preparing himself to listen. "I heard what happened to Jaymi." His voice cracked, and his face looked troubled. "That was totally uncalled for. There's no chance of her waking up?"

Joseph let out a low, barking laugh that wasn't really a laugh at all, merely an acknowledgement of how ludicrous the whole thing was. "No one wakes from Cormbulation." He laughed again. "No sir. She's dead as a doornail now, if she wasn't already. I should have listened to her." His voice started to grow distant, and then faded away. "Shoulda listened."

"Joseph?" Justin shook his shoulder roughly. "Joseph!" Justin's breath quickened, and he pressed his head to Joseph's chest. "Jacobi!" He yelled loud enough to wake the dead. "Jacobi! Autopilot! Hurry! Joseph is out cold! He was acting so strange!" He heard Jacobi swear, and slam the autopilot button.

"Give 'im 'ere!" Jacobi grabbed Joseph's limp body, grabbed his head, and twisted it violently, until his neck made a sickening crack. Both men froze, and gasped simultaneously.

Justin was the first to break the eerie silence. "How could you? I trusted you! Joseph trusted you!" He shook his head. "You're lucky that we're almost there. After A, we're done. You're staying on Jungle. I refuse to work with a murderer."

Jacobi, however, had gone pale too. "I swear on my life, I didn't mean ta." His hands vibrated nervously, hovering over Joseph. "Iss what we were tol' ter do from my parta Jungle. Someone goes unconscious, ya twist their neck. Wakes em up."

"Well it sure as hell didn't this time." Justin bit back viciously. "Now get up front with me while I drive." Justin marched authoritatively towards the cockpit. Jacobi tailed him like a lost puppy.

The next hour was one of Jacobi's darkest. Believing that you killed the only friend you have ever had was one thing, accepting it was another altogether. The silence was only broken by a feeble voice calling out, "Language!"

Justin and Jacobi whipped around to find Joseph half sitting up, leaning heavily on his elbows. "Comere and give your friend a hand!" He commanded as forcefully as he could. Immediately, they were at his side.

"How.....?" Jacobi was lost for words, a rare thing for him. Joseph chuckled.

"Stumped you, huh Cobes?" A laughing fire danced in his eyes, and a brilliant smile lit up his pale face. "Your trick actually worked. I felt like I was merely watching myself until you did that. Then, I sort of...... came back."

"Cobes?" Jacobi's confused face, with his big eyes and raised eyebrow (in the singular), was the sole funniest thing Joseph had seen all day. He burst out laughing, prompting astonished looks from both Jacobi and Justin.

Once satisfied his patient wasn't going to die in the next five minutes, Justin made his way around Joseph, towards Jacobi, and stuck out his hand in a show of forgiveness. "I really shouldn't of been so quick to accuse you mate. You were only trying to help. I hope you accept my apology, and I beg you for forgiveness."

Jacobi slapped his hand into Justin's. "No hard feelings man. I was pretty goddamn shocked myself!"

"LANGUAGE JACOBI JONES!" Joseph screamed from the floor. Jacobi grabbed a pillow and began pummeling Joseph with it. Justin stood back, aloof.

"You children!" He cried, before that signature smirk climbed onto his face yet again, and he was forced to succumb to the pillow fight of two grown men. "What am I doing with my life?" He sighed, as he leapt energetically onto Jacobi's back.

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Joseph opened his eyes many hours later, only to find himself on the floor. Not surprising, he thought, considering that giant pillow fight. He slapped a hand to his forehead. What were we thinking? he groaned internally. He wondered what had awoken him, before taking note of a beeping sounding from the cockpit. He rushed to check on it, and his emotions undertook a ten-second rollercoaster coinciding with what he discovered. They were now orbiting A. They had made it.

Unintentionally, he let out a yelp of he didn't know what; fear, excitement? Regardless of the reason, Jacobi and Justin both awoke, and without questioning him, were immediately at his side, ready for whatever was coming. "We're here." Joseph's voice was faint, even to his own ears. "We made it. Somehow."

Justin and Jacobi seemed to share his reasoning, nodding in agreement. "Are we ready to do this?" Jacobi voiced what all three men were fearing.

Justin nodded, his chin up, and jaw set. "We'd better be," he murmured as he turned the craft out of orbit, and in towards A.

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Heya!

Thank you so much for reading! I'm so sorry this took so long to come out; I was really lazy and have had this done for a couple of weeks before I put it up.

Who else is a huge Jacobi fan? *raises hand excitedly*

Anyway, I really hope you enjoyed this chapter of FOTA, and I will see you next chapter from A!

Alfie :)