Faithful Hearts: The Wanderer
A fanfiction based upon the work of Andrea Avrett
by John P. Fadeley
Part 6-Chapter 7
A Confession and a Rescue

Once Pecos had vanished, riding that cyclone (I know...I still can't believe he could do that!), Marina was giving that kind of look that said I was in MAJOR trouble!
Class 3 Nightmares, I could handle without any difficulty.
Class 2 Nightmares, are a little tricky but I could deal with those...well, except for the Cursed Ghost ones...those things just give me the heebie-jeebies!
Class 1 Nightmares,...well, I could always use some back-up when dealling with them...
But all of those were nothing with the trouble I was currently facing...one very ticked-off Marina Seadrift!
If looks could kill, the one she was giving me now would have laid waste to armies of Class 3s...
"So...when were you planning on telling me you could control Nightmares?" she asked, her arms crossed, her eyes narrowed.
I sighed...here goes...man, how was I going to put this?  Tell her the truth...that's what she wants to hear.  "I wasn't sure how you were going to take this when I did tell you..." I started, "I think when Magnus bit me back on Pleasure Island, I think he infected me with something...it began to manifest after you disappeared from the crew.  Believe me, I didn't even know I could do that...until I prevented a couple of Class 3s from going after a crewmember we picked up in Tortuga."
"That doesn't change the fact that you didn't tell me right off about it!" she said, "How could you hide that from me?!"
"HEY!  I didn't LIE that I had this problem!  Give me some credit, will ya?!" I snapped.
Wall-E just slapped his head.  Yeah...what I said was pretty stupid...
"Wait..." Mushu said, poking his head out of Marina's bag, "You could control Nightmares?!  THAT IS SO COOL!!!"
"MUSHU!" Marina scolded.
"Er, I mean...HOW COULD YOU?! When were you plannin' on telling ME that?!  We could have kept my baby Mulan from being Shanghai-ed!" Mushu accused.
"Not...helping..." I remarked towards Mushu.
"THE POINT IS..." Marina said, trying to get a word in edge-wise, "You are really running the risk of becoming one yourself!"
"Hold on!  So far, I've actually been putting this power to some GOOD use!" I said.
"Such as...?" Marina asked.
"Thrashing Nightmares, keeping them away from a potential Maiden of Purest Heart, and even putting a stop to those sunblocked ones." I listed.
"Whoawhoawhoawhoa..." Marina halted, "You actually put a stop to them?!"
"London, England...a fiend by the name of Professor Ratigan was using Titanium-Dioxide mixed with the natural Morion that Nightmares are made of to make them impervious to sunlight." I explained, "I just used a bit of that Nightmare power to tear his hideout down, so he couldn't make more of the Nightmares resistant to a sun's rays."
"John, you're missing the whole point!" Marina said, her tone changing from scolding to...concern, maybe?  She continued, "I've seen people who relied too much on the power of the Nightmares...it's not a pretty picture..."
"Look, if it means anything, I want to be rid of this as much as anyone else...thanks to one of our new crewmates, we've found a way to get rid of this malicious malady..." I told her.
"Why do I have a feeling I'm going to find this cure unpleasant?" Mushu asked.
"So, what is this cure?" Marina questioned, ignoring Mushu's belligerence.
I sighed and said, "I have to kill the Nightmare who bit me in the first place..."
"Oh, is THAT all?" Mushu scoffed, "All ya gotta do is run the creep through with that overgrown knife of yours and POOF!  Problem solved!"
"It's not that easy, Mushu." Marina told him, "The Nightmare that bit him...was his uncle."
"So, it's a family affair, huh?" Mushu said, "If that's the case, you two need to do some fun uncle/nephew activities, like fishin' or joke about how fat or bald he's getting..."
"Mushu...he murdered my father." I told him sternly.
"Oooooooh...THAT kind of relationship, huh?" Mushu said, "There's one of them in every family..."
"Mushu, enough!" Marina said, "John, is there any other secrets you're hiding from me?!"
"Oh, NOW, you're not being fair to me!" I countered, "You're forgetting that I kept you from being turned into that Cattle-Reaper's shish-kabob!"
"Jjjjjjohn,...noooooooooo...." Wall-E groaned, shaking his binocular-shaped head.
"John, you're no better than Aladdin when he pretended to be a prince!" she snapped at me, "And as far as I'm concerned, you're no better than any Nightmare I've come across!"
OUCH!  Now that was just plain harsh...
With that, she started to walk into the forest before us, before saying to Wall-E, "Come on, Wall-E.  Maybe he can make some new friends...out of darkness, that is..."
"Marina, wait!" I called after her.
"Forget it!" Marina said, her back still facing me, "I don't associate with Nightmares!"
Having just about enough with being labled as the very creatures/beings she hated, I went right up to her and made her turn to face me.
"You think I LIKE having this particular problem?!  I DON'T!" I told her, "Every time I'm about to get in range of Nightmares or near a Maiden of Purest Heart, this arm begins to hurt like heck and nothing I can do can stop it!  I have to wait until that pain goes away!  Besides, you, of all people, should know I hate Nightmares above anything else, considering what they've done to me...and especially the lives they've ruined or are about to ruin!"
For a moment, she didn't even say one word.
I calmed down, lowered my head, and said solemnly, "Believe me when I tell you this, Marina...I want to get rid of this problem I've got before it does get worse...and I'd rather be six-feet-under than become one of them."
Wall-E nodded his head rapidly and chittered.
"You really mean it?" Marina asked me.
I nodded, "With every fiber of my being."
"Promise?" she asked, holding out her right pinky finger, with a smirk.
I smiled...the ol' pinky swear...I linked my right pinky finger with hers and said, "I promise, m'lady."
"Okay, knock it off." Marina giggled, "Well, we should be moving on.  John Henry said there's a railroad that leads out right to the McCullough Current."
"Got it." I replied.
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About a few feet into this forest, Marina stopped during the middle of a discussion with Mushu.  She then got down on her knees and felt the ground.
I looked towards Wall-E...and all I got was a shrug.
"Sooooooo...is this a private thing or are you gonna tell us what's going on?" Mushu asked.
"Mushu...shush." I told him...until Marina opened her eyes again.
"Something's wrong. Someone. . . or something's hurt." she explained, "The ground is trembling from the pain. I think an animal is trapped."
"So?  People gotta eat, ya know." Mushu told her.
"Trapping or hunting is illegal in these woods, Mushu." I told him, "Might be that poacher Pecos told us about."
"Most likely...and whatever that butcher has caught is suffering." Marina said.
"Marina, sweetheart, you're much too sensative about this." Mushu said, "I mean, the natives who taught you that neat trackin' trick had to hunt, didn't they?"
"Hunting for food or clothing for survival is one thing...killing for the mere sport of it on illegal grounds is another. Besides, the Indians taught me how to hunt so I could track Nightmares not animals. I've never hunted an animal in my life." Marina objected.
She then began to follow the sensation to its source.  I did my best to keep pace with her...after all, she said that she was taught that trick to track Nightmares, not animals...what if the trapped animal was bait?  We already ran into Psyche, and she was out for Marina's blood, after all...
That really had me worried.  If Psyche was sent to kill Marina, it meant, potentially, that every scumbag Nightmare in the Etherium would be after her...that Maleficent now considered Marina to be a destabilizing factor to her plans...
"John, over here!" I heard Marina call.
"I'm comin'!  I'm comin'!" I called back.
I reached the top of this small hill where Marina was, then looked down.  At the base of it was a whitetail deer staring right back at us...and near it, caught in a tangled wire trap, was a much older deer.
"Bambi!  Get out of here!  GO!" the elder buck shouted to the younger one.
"I can't just leave you like this." Bambi told him.
"GO!  Don't let those...things get anywhere near you!" he yelled again.
Marina went down the hill to help the older buck.
"Be careful, Marina...a cornered animal can be dangerous." I warned.
"Man is more dangerous..." I heard the elder buck accuse, "Man...like you two!"
Geez...and I thought Marina's accusations were harsh...
Marina did her best to calm the deer down, but it seemed pretty adamant in it's opinion of us being its enemies...even if we were trying to help.
Mushu offered to bite through part of the wire...but when he grabbed part of it, he retracted his hands quickly, screaming, "YEEEEEOW!!!  What the heck kind of wire is this?!"
Marina lightly touched the wire...and winced in pain.  There was a slight trickle of blood on the wire...and from what looked like a paper cut on her finger.
"Razor wire...this hunter must be crazier than Pecos said he is." Marina said.
"His leg's caught, too." Mushu pointed out.
She got pretty ticked when she saw that, "A deer snare!  That's illegal!   That horrid, heartless...!!!"
Finally, she got her mind off of the hunter and went back to the business of freeing and healing this deer.
She brought out this stone dagger she got from the Powhatan tribe and told Mushu to find another stone like it so she could use it as a pair of makeshift shears to cut the wire.
"Wall-E, see if you can help Marina cut those wires with your laser...but be careful not to start a forest fire or hurt the deer." I instructed.
Wall-E nodded and rolled up to the deer.
"What is that...thing?!" the entangled animal asked as Wall-E got to work.
"He's a friend...as is the other human there." Marina said.
Well,...that was encouraging.
"But he has a weapon on him..." the deer snarled, narrowing his eyes.
"Relax...I'm not going to hurt you either." I said, "I'd rather be taking shots at Nightmares than at an innocent animal."
"Nightmares?" he asked in consternation.
"Vile creatures we've been fighting against..." Marina replied, "John, are you going to help us with releasing..."
She then realized that she didn't ask the deer its name.  After some coaxing, the stubborn animal finally revealed itself to be the "Great Prince of the Forest".
"I see...your Majesty." Marina said respectfully, "Now, John, what are you doing at the moment?"
Looking around the horizon, I replied, "Keeping watch...whoever set this trap can't be too far away..."
It turned out Bambi didn't go too far.  He was watching us from the bushes this whole time...and it turned out that this hunter got his mom before he even lost the spots on his sides.
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We finally managed to get the "Great Prince" back on his hooves.  His size was staggering!  He was almost large enough to be a caribou!
"There...how's that?" Marina asked, while Wall-E took the last of the razor wire and began compacting it.
"Well, there's a little pain...but I can stand, in spite of it." the adult deer replied.
There was a loud gunshot heard far from where we were...where I then heard the sound of dogs...atleast, I think they were dogs...something didn't seem right...
Then, I felt a searing pain in my left arm...it couldn't be...Nightmares...here?!
"What's wrong with your friend?" Bambi asked Marina.
"Go...get to the railroad, Marina..." I told her while bringing out my Gunblade, "I'll catch up."
"Wha...John, where are you going?!" Marina called after me.
"This...hunter has terrorized these woods long enough...what he's doing is wrong..." I said, continuing to go the way I was going.
"Jjjjjjjjjjohn!" Wall-E said, rolling after me.
"No, Wall-E.  Stay with Marina.  If anything happens to me, you'll be the only long-range defense she'll have." I told him.
Wall-E chittered angrily and still followed me.
I then stopped and turned to face the robot, "Wall-E, please...don't just do this for me...do this Marina...do it for EVE..."
Wall-E's eyebrows raised when I mentioned his lady friend..."Eeeee-vaaaah...."
With that, he rolled back towards Marina.
"John...be careful, alright?" she offered.
I smiled back at her and replied, "Count on it."
As I ran in the direction of where I heard the gunshot go off, I heard Mushu remark, "Man, he's nuttier than a elephant's diet."
"I HEARD THAT!!!" I shouted back at him.