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Chapter Text

Cold, biting whispers of wind blow across the paths of Cairo, a city of ancient and majestic history behind its old buildings and grainy sand. Through the hidden alleyways and roughened up streets of the old city, an unwanted aura had come to rise as of recent. Many are unsure of the aura’s origin. What all the citizens of Cairo know is that something in the dark is lurking about, watching them. Certain personnel of the city have also tended to disappear, though the citizens of Cairo pay no mind. If they stick to their own business, no trouble will come their way.

Stars twinkled and shined as moonlight painted the streets with its light. A lone Texan cowboy, Hol Horse, walked through the shadows of the night. He strutted down the pathways of Cairo, bullets of sweat rolling down his head. The Emperor, a spectral being, faintly manifests in Hol Horse’s clenched hand. He’s ready to protect his user. The cowboy wonders what has he done to be at this point in life.

‘I’m but a scavenger on the wind, ’ the Texan thought. Hol has caught wind of a hitman job that's been opened up by an anonymous employer, they promised a hefty sum.

‘Being a scavenger comes at its cost though, what would Ma and Pa think…’ Hol Horse thought again. He really needed this money. The guilt of eyes keeping watch from above will not stop him now, not when he has gotten this far. With that, Hol Horse kept walking. His stroll, though, ended soon enough. A building came into view. Hol Horse’s heart thumped, he knew this building, at least by description from the job offering.

What stood in front of Hol Horse was an enormous mansion, its aged appearance shown in its architecture. A chilled breeze gently blew across the cowboy, his yellow shawl flowing in the wind. Hol Horse gently pushed open the gate, a sense of dread fills him as he hears the shrill of the gate. Hol can feel a chill running down his spine, someone is watching him. The cowboy approaches the door to the mansion, his boots making a clicking noise for every step he takes, and knocks. Hol starts to have second thoughts.

‘I should really leave. This isn’t for me! Huh? The door’s opening!’ Hol Horse frantically thought. Guess he can’t back out of this opportunity now. The doors to the mansion started to slowly open with a groan, revealing a bizarrely dressed man. He was draped with a white overcoat and a black shirt with an enormous purple heart on it. He was also donned with a tall, green hat?

“Good evening, you seem new,” the strange man spoke. His face seemed too gleeful to see a random person like Hol Horse, especially this late at night. It’s almost midnight!

“Uh, yes, g’evening to you as well,” Hol Horse muttered back. “You’re the man who asked for a dang good hitman?” The strange man’s eyes squinted a little

“Lord DIO asked for a hitman. I’m only their butler, D’arby. Telence D’arby,” he replied. Hol Horse shivered a little.

‘Lord?’ Hol Horse pondered. 

“I see you have a little friend,” Telence suddenly announced, his eyes casting down at Hol Horse’s hand. Hol Horse flicked his eyes down, seeing his Emperor almost manifested in his hand. He quickly made his lovely gun disappear, not wanting to start a fight. Telence chuckled, moving to the side.

“Come in! Don’t keep Lord DIO waiting,” Telence warmly exclaimed. Hol Horse took one more thought. He could still leave. He had free will. Instead, Hol Horse stepped forward. There had to be a purpose for him being here, he’s not turning back now. Telence smiled as Hol Horse stepped inside the mansion, closing the door behind him. 

The interior of the mansion has the same aura the outside had. It felt way too cold and confusing to explore. The butler, to Hol Horse’s taste, was creepy and made the aura even worse.  At least he led the way around the mansion.

“You never mentioned your name, my esteemed guest!” Telence perked up. Hol Horse jumped a little, though ultimately knew there wasn’t exactly any harm in telling his name. 

“Horse, Hol Horse. That’s my name,” the Texan stated slowly. Hol Horse soon heard a few muffled chuckles, of course. This butler is both a creep and doggone annoying. Hol Horse took the brim of his hat and tugged it down.

‘Good grief.’  

 Hol Horse, despite his annoyance, still followed closely behind Telence until they came up to a set of stairs. The stairs only welcomed them with the darkness and a cold draft. 

“Up these, take a left, and take the door on the very end of the hall,” Telence rapidly spoke.

“Pardon me?” Hol Horse asked.

“My fault, I’ll repeat instructions again. You go up those stairs in front of us. Then, you go down the left hall and take the final door you find in that hall. Now hurry up, Lord DIO is waiting for you,” Telence repeated again. Hol Horse took a breath, blowing his breath out of his nose. To be honest, Hol Horse was only stalling. 

‘I’m in for it now, huh?’ Hol Horse thought, now accepting he has no choice but to go up.

“Now if you excuse me, I will be heading off now. After you’re done with Lord DIO, you can play some games with me!” Telence offered. Hol Horse snapped out of his thoughts.

“Huh? Oh, not today,” Hol Horse quickly replied, starting to head up the stairs.

“Hm? Well suit yourself,” replied Telence, presumably walking back to his so-called ‘gamer den’. Hol sees the butler deflate a smidge as he walks away.

Hol Horse slowly trudged up the stairs, listening to every little creek the steps made underneath him. The way up was as dark as ink, and the hallway was no different. Hol Horse had to grope for the decaying walls, not wanting to trip on the loose tiles and floorboards. He went farther down the hall until he reached a dead end. On his right, there was a door with faint light coming from underneath the door. Hol Horse grabbed the knob and twisted it at a snail’s pace. The door opened, a frigid draft hitting Hol Horse upon entering.

With the faint light of a burning candle lit inside the room, bookshelves, counters, and many curtains adorned the room. A library whose only inhabitants are books and dust. Hol Horse however, felt a presence in the room, and it wasn’t stray dust or cobwebs. Looking around the library, he found someone sitting in a chair reading a book. If that weird Butler was correct, then Hol Horse knew who this person was.

“Dio…” the cowboy whispered to himself. Hol Horse turned his head back to look at what he presumed was Dio, except only the same book the person was reading was left. 

‘I dang swore I saw them sitting right there-’

“ Hello,” rang a voice from behind. Hol Horse snapped around to see what was behind him. Behind him was a figure taller than he was, fitted in only some pants, a belt, and a stupid looking pair of shoes. 

“You’re Dio!” Hol Horse exclaimed, backing off from the large man in front of them.

“ Lord DIO,” Dio announced, walking past Hol Horse, going back to their chair. This Dio person was big in their frame and tall, a lot more tough than the cowboy thought. The blond hair bouncing with every bare step Dio took, their eyes sharp and yellow. Hol breathed hard and exhaled shallow. Alarms, red flags, all of them going off in the Texan’s mind. How did Dio- Lord DIO hear him and Telence? His hand writhed, wanting to call out his ghostly partner. 

“You’re here for the job, aren’t you? I believe you know what powers we hold. I believe you know the dangers of this,” Lord DIO stated, bookmarking their book with a red rose. Hol Horse jumped a little at Lord DIO’s voice. To all pieces, Hol was afeared.

“...Yes, yes, I know,” Hol Horse replied. 

“I would be delighted for you to join us. We need all the help we can get to enlighten all. I’ve heard you have a hidden power. Show me it,” DIO demanded. Hol Horse, not looking for a fight with what seems like the big boss, pulled out the emperor. DIO smiled. 

“This ‘ere, he’s the emperor. Had him since I was a chap,” Hol Horse stated, absentmindedly rubbing the trigger of his canister. Lord DIO looked down at the trustworthy firearm. Their mouth twisted up into a smirk.

“You’re perfect, in almost every way in my eyes. You will fit just right in. I have multiple rooms within my wonderful mansion. You may choose one. Now, hurry off. I have business to attend to,” Lord DIO spoke softly in a pseudo calm voice, setting a hand on Hol’s shoulder. Hol Horse looked behind him, then looked back over to Lord DIO. Lord DIO gripped his shoulder tighter, making Hol Horse tense up.

“...yes, Lord DIO,” Hol Horse finally answered. Lord DIO let out a satisfied hum, letting go of Hol Horse’s shoulder. Hol Horse as calmly as he could, turned around to walk away. He wouldn’t even look Lord DIO in the eyes, too afraid to upset his boss. The last thing Hol Horse heard when exiting the room were the low chuckles of Lord DIO. 

Hol Horse picks up the pace once he is far from the library, rushing to get down to the lower floor of the mansion. The cowboy ran, almost tripping on the loose floorboards he swore to look out for. He skipped a few steps at the stairs, giving no cares about the low visibility. Then, Hol Horse finally reached the first floor. 

Looking around, Hol Horse decided to head down one of the halls. He didn’t want to interact with any of the cracked-up people here. He only wanted some rest. He’d traveled far and wide to get here, it’s only fair if he gets a well-deserved break from all of this. Hol Horse traversed down the hall he had chosen and saw one of the open doors. It was a bedroom, though already occupied by someone as there are items inside. At least this was the correct hall. Hol Horse traveled farther down the ever so elongating hallway, but then he saw a man. A peculiar man, very odd.

Walking down from the other end of the hallway was a man with shining, white hair. The almost silver looking hair was up in a column shape, tall and proud. A jacket hung loosely around the man’s well-built body and his grayed-out undershirt. Baggy pants with intricate designs adorned the man, the ends hanging around his ankles. The man’s boots made small echoes down the hallway with every step he took. Hol Horse would have said that this man would be the bettermost of DIO’s group, if it was not for the fact the man looked like a barber’s cat. Something felt off, though Hol Horse didn’t know what it was between how the man sways and his dullen eyes in the small amount of stray moonlight. 

Just as Hol Horse was about to walk past the man, he felt a bump on his shoulder. The man accidentally bumped into him. The man with cold gray-blue eyes glared at Hol Horse’s own honey-like eyes. There was something Hol Horse noticed, catching the attention of his eyes. Red, broken heart earrings. The earrings seem strange to be on a man like this, very unusual. The odd man stared at Hol Horse, his eyes gaining its shine momentarily. The silver-haired man however turned away and continued on his way to God knows where. 

Hol Horse exhaled a breath he didn’t know he was holding. It felt almost eerie. Hol brings the brim of his hat onto his face, not wanting to draw any attention to himself. All the now tired Texan wanted to do is sleep, leaving all his problems for himself in the morning.

Finally, after for what seemed like eternity, Hol Horse found an unoccupied room. Small amounts of moonlight came from the small cracks from the blackout window curtains, slightly illuminating the room. Hol went inside and shut the door, locking it. He didn’t trust anyone in this mansion just yet. The room had a small twin-sized bed with a red covering. A red carpet adorned the room along with ornate pieces of tacky furniture. Nothing but an ordinary room.

Hol Horse took his hat and threw it on a hat stand in the room. He took off his yellow shawl and kicked off his boots. All that’s left on Hol Horse is a pair of dark green pants and dark green shirt. He took the covers off the bed and laid down. The emperor manifested, resting in his holder’s hand underneath the pillow.

‘What have I gotten myself into…’

Chapter Text

The morning sun splashes through the small cracks of the curtains, covering the bedroom in a golden glaze. Hol Horse stirs in bed a little, his eyes flutter open. The sounds of knocks and rasps on the wooden door were the first sounds Hol registered upon awakening. He quickly jumped out of bed and ran to the door. Upon unlocking it, a familiar butler stood at the doorway.

“We can’t have you sleeping in!” Telence exclaimed to the still sleepy Hol who seemed to be still in a daze. “What are we paying you for, lazing around?” Hol Horse rubbed the sleep from his eyes, realizing this butler is actually awake.

“Do you ever sleep? The hell are you still awake!” Hol Horse basically yelled at Telence. It didn’t make it any better that Telence had that gosh dang stupid tall hat on.

“Eh…” Telence mutters as he raises and shakes his right hand in a so-so gesture. “Well, I’m expecting you to get started. Here,” Telence says, shoving a pouch onto Hol Horse, who almost dropped it. “This is money for you to get any supplies while you’re out. I will also be pairing you with someone, since you’re new. Get dressed and follow me.” Hol Horse sighed. He needed to get his job done. Hol Horse grabs his shawl, boots, and hat back on. He then follows Telence to the entrance of the mansion. 

“Where’s the big boss?” Hol Horse asks while walking alongside Telence.

“The big boss? Do you mean Lord DIO? The master is in their resting room, they don’t like to walk around during the day. Please refer to the master as Lord, please,” Telence pleads.

“What, are they like a vampire or something,” Hol Horse sarcastically jokes, hoping no one else heard him. Telence doesn't reply, but Hol Horse thinks nothing of it. The two reach the mansion's main lobby, and someone is sitting on a cushioned seat in the entrance area. 

“This is your partner,” Telence announces. “Meet Polnareff.” Apparently this Polnareff guy was the same person Hol Horse met last night upon closer inspection.

‘This guy again! Couldn’t I have been paired with someone else?’ Hol Horse thought in exasperation. Polnareff glances up at the two, proceeding to stand from his chair, going over to both Hol Horse and Telence. He bowed in front of the two, then stood back up to await directions. His eyes still looked dazed from the night before.

“Now, I want you two to head out and hunt down this man,” Telence directed as he held a file showcasing a description of how he looked and who he was. “This man, he’s Muhammad Avdol. He has close relations with a rival group called the Speedwagon Foundation. Take him out, and you get paid handsomely,” Telence ordered.

“And if we don’t?” Hol asked.

“Well, you better have an excuse for Lord DIO prepared,” Telence states. Hol Horse sweats a little, the statement prior seeming like a threat. “Now, get going,” Telence orders. Hol Horse looks at Polnareff, then back to the door. He came here for a reason, and it wasn’t supposed to be pleasant. Hol Horse and Polnareff start to the outside of the mansion.

Hol Horse and Polnareff walk out into the golden light of the sun, the morning breeze hitting them. Citizens of Cairo look to be out and about. Hol Horse starts to feel peckish, having not eaten in a while. Hol Horse looks over to his assigned partner.

“You don’t seem to talk much, pal,” Hol Horse remarked. Polnareff only let out a sort of hum, still looking as if he were still in a trance. “I’m going to head over to that kebab stand, ya hear that? Want anything?” the cowboy asks. Polnareff let out another hum in response. Hol Horse only sighed, knowing at this point he won’t be able to get a single word out of this man. They both continued down the brightened streets of Cairo and stopped at a food vender. Hol Horse paid for two kebabs and directed his pal over to a curbside. 

“So,” Hol Horse said while chewing his kebab, “why are you working with Lord DIO?” Hol Horse asked. Hol Horse didn’t really expect Polnareff to answer, he only really threw that question out of curiosity. Polnareff however, stopped eating his kebab and swallowed whatever he had eaten. Polnareff’s eyes seemed to lighten from its dull haze for the first time.

“I’m looking for a man with two right hands. Have you happened to have seen a person like that?” Polnareff asked. Hol Horse looked at Polnareff in a surprised manner. Polnareff’s voice sounded higher than what Hol initially thought it would sound like, but the voice also seemed to be tied with an accusatory tone. Hol Horse shook his head from side to side, indicating a no to Polnareff. Polnareff looks sullen.

“Lord DIO promised me information on the whereabouts of the man,” Polnareff said.

“How’d ya meet this strange DIO guy?” asked the curious Hol Horse, going back to gnawing on his kebab. Polnareff sat in silence for a little while before responding.

“I remember passing out and waking up to find myself in bed, Lord DIO stood by me. They told me I had been severely fatigued on my journey to find the man with two right hands. Lord DIO promised that they would help find the man, as long as I helped them,” Polnareff confesses. “They told me I was misguided. That they would help set me back on track. I owe everything to Lord DIO, they saved me.”

“Do you remember anything before you woke up?” Hol Horse asked, strangely intrigued by Polnareff’s story. 

“No, I…I don’t remember anything really. I remember I was back in France, looking for the man with two right hands and went here, to Cairo, for some reason. It feels very blurry for me. Nobody has ever asked me before,” Polnareff mutters, rubbing his temples. Hol Horse grunts, tossing his kebab stick aside. 

“You seem really keen on finding this man. You never told me why,” Hol Horse notes.

“I am keen on finding him,” Polnareff answers, throwing his kebab stick away too. Hol Horse doesn’t exactly get his question answered but no matter. He takes out the files Telence gave him to analyze them again. 

“Hey, no-brows. Look at this,” Hol Horse teases, noting that Polnareff apparently has no eyebrows. What a stylistic choice.

“Quoi!” Polnareff exclaims, seeming a little hurt. He still looks over to Hol, despite his face faking dramatic sadness.

“Look pardner. Avdol resides in this area of the city,” Hol Horse states as points to a section on the file map. “If you set watch on that end of the alley and I set watch on the other end, we can ambush him.”

“Magnifique!” Polnareff exclaims, clasping his hands. Both get up, ready to go on their short journey to some stinky alley. Hol Horse and Polnareff dash off to get to the alleyway Hol Horse pointed out, making sure to probably run into everyone on the streets.

Cairo’s streets are busy. Many people are walking all about, and cars quickly drive by. The sun beats down on the pair of assassins, Polnareff somewhat complaining the whole way. Hol Horse and Polnareff finally get to the alleyway, looking as crummy as they expected.

“Polnareff, you see that high area here?” Hol Horse says as he points up at a hidden ledge above the alleyway. “I want you to stake out there, alright?”

“Understood, Monsieur Horse,” Polnareff answers in a mocking tone, attempting to get back at Hol for earlier. Hol scoffs but gets back onto his plan.

“I’m going to head down to the other side of this ‘here alleyway. I’ll notify you if I need backup for the ambush,” Hol Horse quickly adds.

“Wait, you didn’t go over how you will signal me,” Polnareff points out.

“Um,” Hol Horse lets out, having not thought about that. Before he does answer, Polnareff answers his own question.

“Hey, we can whistle to signal each other, like this!” Polnareff exclaims with a snap, whistling a small tune. The tune sounds simple enough, this could work.

“Good thinking,” Hol Horse compliments. “You have something to defend yourself, right? Haven’t met your stand yet,”

“Yeah, meet Chariot!” Polnareff boasts as a silver knight figure came out from behind him. Hol Horse stared in awe at the spectral knight before he disappeared. They’re a lot bigger than his Emperor, though the Emperor will always be powerful in the eyes of Hol Horse.

“Good,” Hol Horse states. “I’ll meet you in a while” Hol Horse finally says to Polnareff, then proceeding to run down the other side of the narrow alleyway. Hol Horse jumps over a few walls and perches himself on a hidden ledge. Now to wait…for how long? Hol Horse looks at his wristwatch. Still two hours before noon. It’s going to be a while till Avdol shows up. Hol Horse groans out of annoyance but he starts to hear something, not too far from where he was. A small, whistled tune filled with the light of optimism rang out. Hol Horse’s face relaxes.

‘At least I won’t be alone’

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────

It had been hours since the steak out had been planned, and Hol Horse sat alone. He and Polnareff figured out a flaw in their plan, and that was when Avdol would arrive. Realizing that they might not have something for Lord DIO by sundown, they took turns trying to recruit people into Lord DIO’s ever building group. It was Polnareff’s turn to play scout. Polnareff complained a little about having to walk around in the blazing heat, if only he had his string bag. Apparently, he lost it, so Hol Horse told him he’d keep an eye out for it. Polnareff seemed happy so he went off on his way. 

Hol Horse now sat in silence, waiting for either Polnareff to come back or for Avdol to fall for his trap. Hol Horse really started to get irritated and thought about calling it quits. It was almost evening at this point. That was until a robed figure was going through the alleyway, unbeknownst to whom lurked in the alley. 

It was Avdol! Even if the file didn’t have any visible images of him, the description fit this man perfectly. Hol Horse has read over the file multiple times during the day and knew this man’s stand was pretty strong. Though, it can’t be strong enough to take down his Emperor! The cowboy waited for his would-be victim to get just close enough in his range and ambushed Avdol.

“W-what!” Avdol yelled as Hol Horse tackled and pinned him to the ground. Avdol looked up to find himself staring at a barrel of a gun.

‘My plan, it’s working!’ Hol Horse thought, thinking of what to do next. Avdol tried kicking him, only for that desperate attempt to be met with failure. Hol Horse met the futile attack by punching Avdol, making him cough up spit and vibrant red. Avdol visibly got upset, sending out his stand with a cry. In front of Hol Horse and in its full glory, was-

“MAGICIAN’S RED!” Avdol exclaimed, the yell filled with the power of many suns. The muscular bird spewed its intricate patterns of flames out at Hol Horse, and he backed off. Avdol was successful in getting his attacker off him but now, he truly had to engage in combat. Hol Horse started to second guess this battle. Maybe he wasn’t as strong as he thought. 

Hol Horse tries to run out of the alleyway, seeking for the help of his partner in crime, only to be dragged back into the fight by Avdol.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Avdol menacingly asks, not expecting his answer to be answered. A dangerous aura fills the air, Hol’s starts to breathe way too fast for his own comfort. Avdol used red-bind, trying to burn Hol horse with his heated-up tangents. The cowboy got burned as he let out grunts of pain, but the bindings were too loose, allowing Hol horse to slip out of his yellow shawl. He was free!

“D-dammit!” Avdol muttered, watching his attack fall apart in front of himself. Hol Horse whipped out his emperor with a spin, shooting a bullet directed towards Avdol. The bullet tragically only pierced part of his cloak. Avdol sent out his Magician’s Red again, directing a flame towards the center of Hol Horse. Hol Horse leaped before it could hit him in the chest. Avdol was about to despair over his miss, and then realized he made an accidental hit somewhere else. 

“DAGNABBIT!” Hol Horse wheezed in pain, as the fiery attack hit him in his left foot. Hol Horse tripped and hugged his leg close to himself. He looked up to see Avdol trekking over to his location. Hol Horse could only back up.

‘Not now, I can’t kick the bucket this early!’ Hol Horse thought in misery, heavily breathing.

“Hol, what’s going on over there?” a voice called out from outside the alleyway. Avdol took his eyesight off Hol Horse to look for the owner of the voice. This gave Hol Horse enough time to manifest his Emperor once more, planning one final, angry attack.

BANG, BANG, BANG! 

The Emperor cried out, spiraling bullets towards Avdol. Only one bullet struck its target. The one bullet to Avdol’s side was enough to take him down. Avdol yelled in pain, falling to the ground and squirming around. Red starts to bleed through the layers of cloaks he wears.
“R-red!” Avdol calls as he partially summons Magician's Red, letting him use red-bind to wrap around his wound. Hol Horse saw Avdol frantically look back at him and at the entrance of the alleyway. Avdol looked like he was going to pass out any second from the paleness of his face. Then, Avdol made the choice to get up and bolt. Avdol ran away.

“Hol Horse? Hol! Where are you?” the voice called again from behind Hol. The Texan kept panting hard, partially ignoring the voice. Hol’s foot was bubbling and blistering with the heat. It was agony. Pure, hot, white, agony. Hol Horse suddenly felt a hand touch his shoulder.

Upon turning around, Hol Horse saw the terrified face of Polnareff. His eyes looked sharp, no longer glossy. Hol Horse looking at Polnareff’s face, realizes it is the first time Polnareff has had an animated face besides a fatigued or dazed look. Hol Horse snapped out of his own daze.

“I’m alright,” Hol Horse states, leaving Polnareff bewildered. Maybe it was too far of a stretch to say he was okay.

“Your foot looks like it’s melting!” Polnareff exclaims, obviously exaggerating but obviously concerned. He approaches Hol Horse, slowly picking him up. Hol Horse winces a little, but doesn’t show the pain he’s in to Polnareff. In a bridal carry, Hol Horse tries to not focus on his leg while Polnareff tries to rush back to Lord DIO’s mansion. 

“You don’t look well,” Hol Horse notes, looking at Polnareff who looks like he’s about to throw up.

“You insufferable cowboy, you could have died! I could have lost you, just like…” Polnareff cut himself off, looking as if his mind had been put on pause. He shakes his head. “I just want to get us back to the mansion, my head is starting to hurt,” Polnareff complains, visibly looking pained. He scrambles himself and Hol Horse out of the alleyway and out onto the main street.

A few painful minutes later of running, both Hol Horse and Polnareff arrived at the mansion. Polnareff summoned Chariot to open the door, walking in with Hol Horse in hand and calling out for someone to help them. A trusty butler answered Polnareff’s pleas and came around the corner of a nearby hallway.

“Where have you been, you are late! I swear if you are asking about your bag again, I will-ah! Hol Horse!” Telence yelled. He runs over to Polnareff and assists him in carrying Hol Horse to his room in the mansion.

They all entered Hol’s room and Hol Horse got set down on his bed. Telence whispered something to Polnareff which promptly made him leave the room. Telence himself also left the room, coming back shortly with a bag of supplies. Telence sighs as he takes out scissors.

“It’s your first day and this happened. Funny enough it’s not the most bizarre thing to have happened on my watch,” Telence explains as he cuts Hol Horse’s burned pant leg off, revealing the burn wound. “It’s not exactly your fault, I should have been more considerate about the target I gave you. I thought you knew what you were up against, I guess not,” Telence stated. Hol Horse felt his pride get damaged, but he knew it was somewhat deserved. 

“You don’t think Lord DIO’s going to be mad?” Hol Horse asks in worry, his voice wavering a little. He hadn’t even considered how the big boss would feel about this failure. 

“Why do you think I sent Polnareff out?” Telence answers with a question while he takes out bandages.

“Will Lord DIO even listen to him?”

“I know they will, Polnareff is their favorite. Well, besides a red-haired guy who used to reside here, but he was sent off back to Japan. There was also some priest too, but I was never really close to him,” Telence remarks while bandaging the burned foot. Hol Horse hisses at the singing pain, it really hurts. Telence finishes bandaging Hol’s foot, leaving Hol Horse to lay down. 

“You’re really sure Lord DIO won’t say a thing?” Hol worryingly asks.

“I’m sure,” Telence replies, picking up his supplies and leaving Hol Horse alone.

Hol laid in bed, all alone. He already threw his hat to the side and had his boots taken off. His shawl though, it’s all ash by now. It got burned away by Avdol, along with Hol Horse’s pant leg. Hol Horse pinches the bridge of his nose, knowing he needs to get new clothing. Amidst Hol’s internal annoyance, someone decided to knock on his door. Hol Horse snaps out of it and looks at the door.

“Come in,” Hol Horse exhales apathetically. The door opens to reveal a familiar Frenchman and his tall hair. “Polnareff!” Hol Horse exclaimed.

“We’re going to be fine. Lord DIO is merciful, only just because we got them those recruitments. Usually, they ask me to stay behind for the night, though they didn’t this time. I have not seen the recruitments around here yet, I’ve only seen them go to Lord DIO’s room,” Polnareff states. Hol Horse exhales in relief at the news. He looks back at his leg, maybe Lord DIO spared him this time for a different reason. That leg’s going to be a pain. Hey, speaking of pain…

“Polnareff, is your noggin feeling well?” Hol Horse asks.

“No, it still feels like my head’s ringing,” Polnareff replies, rubbing his forehead. 

“Well then, hit the hay. Probably it’ll go away by tomorrow,” Hol suggests.

“Wait now monsieur Horse, what about-” Polnareff tries to say before getting cut off.

“I said hit the hay, now go,” Hol Horse interjects. Polnareff opens his mouth, almost about to say something before closing his mouth again. He nods, walking out the room and closing the door behind him.

Hol Horse rests his head on the stiff as can be pillow. He stares up at the ceiling, hoping to wander off into his thoughts. The sun has set again, the throbbing in his foot still continuing. It will most likely heal soon enough, but not as fast as Hol wants it to heal. He closes his eyes. It gives temporary relief for a moment before the agony of the foot comes back to nag Hol. He groans.  

‘At least Polnareff’s safe. At least I’m still above the snakes.’

Chapter Text

A month, a singular month. That’s how long Hol Horse had worked for Lord DIO. The Texan’s foot had fully healed but his consciousness tells a different story. Over this period of time, Hol Horse had done multiple assassinations on ex-members who betrayed Lord DIO. For some killings, he couldn’t really bear himself to shoot with his Emperor. None of the killings felt right, but it provided the money Hol Horse was promised. With all these assassinations, Hol started to feel more eyes on him. Maybe he should have killed that Avdol feller, while he had the chance. 

Despite what happened on his first day, Polnareff still stuck with Hol Horse. They made a good team after all. Even with Polnareff’s energy contrasting with Hol, he still kept the Frenchman around. It’s nice to have someone watch your back.

“He’s never been more alive!” Telence had told Hol Horse, when asked about Polnareff. As of recently however, the statement is starting to contradict itself. Polnareff was nowhere to be seen around the mansion. Hol would only see other members of Lord DIO. There were some men, women, weird loyalists, and even a bird that stuck around Lord DIO. Hol Horse could only care less about them, his mind on only one person. 

Hol Horse stands in front of a door, presumably belonging to the person in his mind. He knocks, a hoarse voice on the other side tells him to come in.

Entering what appears to almost be a darkened room inhabited by dust, Hol Horse sees the usually boisterous Frenchman, laying silently in bed. A cold draft similar to the dreaded library circles around the messy room. Midday sun barely shining through the blinds illuminates a figure, a familiar Frenchman. Polnareff’s head is turned away from the door, his hair down in a mess and a damp towel on his forehead. A pathetic sight.

“Pardner, ya doing alright?” Hol Horse questions, grimly knowing that Polnareff truly isn't okay. 

“What do you think?” a fatigued Polnareff tries to murmur out. “This headache, it’s not normal. Lord DIO expects me to be up and about in an hour, or even sooner!” Polnareff frustratingly wheezes out, turning further away from Hol Horse. 

“Why?” Hol Horse asks in surprise, angered about how someone could push the limits of his partner in crime. 

“I’m taking a plane to Hong Kong with someone, looking for some tacky people,” Polnareff huffs. “Joestairs? Foestars? I don’t know what they even look like, and I really don’t care,” Pol admits. The cowboy moves closer to the bed, sitting on the edge of it. Hol reaches out his hand to touch the Frenchman’s shoulder. Upon touching the weary Polnareff, Pol whispers something.

“What was that?” Hol asks, unclear of what was said.

“It really hurts,” Polnareff murmurs, his smile trembling.

‘Poor soul,’ Hol Horse thought sympathetically. The Texan was going to attempt to give some sort of consolidation, but Hol Horse hears the yell of an annoying butler.

“HOL HORSE, GET OVER HERE!” Telence yells from the other side of the mansion. Hol Horse sighs, getting up from the bed. 

“Gotta go, Mr. Crazy Games needs a job done. Hang tight,” Hol Horse quietly says. Polnareff turns to face towards Hol Horse. He gets up and tries to put up a smile, holding up a thumbs up. Hol Horse slowly cracks a smile, tugging his hat down. Turning around, Hol leaves.

Once Hol Horse made it out the hallway, an annoyed Telence sprinted over to Hol. Telence grabs Hol by his shirt collar, shaking him while Hol Horse tries to push him off.

“Slow down, the hell you’re doing!” Hol Horse exclaims. Before the Texan could get a word from Telence, a big bag gets thrown right into his face.

“I’ve been trying to look for you the whole time! Lord DIO wants you to dispose of this… ridiculousness.” Hol Horse looks down at the bag. It looks like a trash bag.

“Hey! I ain't doing your job, am I?” Hol Horse quickly asks.

“I’ve got a game session in a minute, alright? Now please, do me a great favor and get rid of this garbage. Please,” Telence strangely begs Hol. The cowboy stares at Telence, sighing slightly.

“Alright, fine,” Hol Horse gives in. Telence smiles before turning back to go to his ‘gamer den’.

‘Anything to get them death sticks’ Hol Horse thought, starting off to the front door of the mansion. The faster this job’s done, the faster Hol Horse can make money.

Hol emerges from the darkness of the mansion, out into the blazing sun. It only took a little to walk to a garbage area to toss the bag of trash.

Suddenly, two dogs pounce onto Hol which trips him over. A kid, presumably the owner, chases his dogs as they try to make a grand escapade. 

“Sorry mister!” the kid quickly spits out, before going back to chasing his dogs again. Hol Horse let out yet another sigh. He gets up, dusting off his jeans and vest. He hopes the ground didn't ruin the clothing Pol got him. Adjusting his hat, Hol Horse looks around, trying to find where that bag of trash went.

“Damn trash, where in blazes did it go! Hm?” Hol Horse notes, spotting the bag of trash. He goes over to pick it up, until he realizes something is spilling out of the bag. That doesn’t look like trash. 

“Red earrings?” Hol Horse mutters to himself, holding one of the earrings up. A broken heart shimmered in the light, the jagged ends of the heart highlighted by the sun. Then it hits him, these are Polnareff’s. Hol Horse thought about digging through the bag but thought to respect Polnareff’s privacy. It’s still his bag. Hol gets up with the bag, and hotfoot back over to the mansion.

‘Why are they trying to throw his bag away?’ Hol Horse inquired in anger, entering the mansion. He has heard Polnareff talk about his bag and the whereabouts of it. Now, Hol had almost thrown it away, almost gone forever. Hol gets to Polnareff’s room and quickly enters it, closing the door on his way in. He doesn’t want any peeping eyes. 

“Mon ami, why are you back so quick?” Polnareff asks, slowly rising from bed and backing up to the headboard. Hol Horse doesn’t say anything, tossing the bag over to Polnareff. Pol looks down at the bag for a few moments, slowly reaching out for the bag. He pulled it open, and carefully searched the contents. He got a hold of something and pulled it out.

A photo, a single photo of a woman was pulled out.

“Polnareff?” Hol asked. All Hol Horse could see was a building sense of dread on Polnareff’s face. Pol’s breath becomes rapid, streams of sweat running down his forehead. He sets the photo down as delicately as he could, and he starts to look through the bag’s content even more. 

 “Stop, ya ain’t helping yourself by doing that!” Hol Horse warns. Polnareff didn’t seem to listen. He took money, a knife, compass, journal, and more items. Some maps were taken out as well, multiple circles around cities that were crossed out. Cairo was the only city that was circled but not crossed out. How long was Polnareff traveling for? Polnareff kept searching the bag but what got his attention was a heart locket. Hol Horse looked at the picture the heart locket had when Pol opened it, the photo had two children in it. The photo resembled Polnareff and someone else. Polnareff closed the locket and turned it around. Hol Horse saw Polnareff’s eyes become wet as he watched him scan the locket up and down.

“...it can’t be,” Polnareff mutters, almost too quiet for Hol Horse to hear. “This whole time I’ve been…” Polnareff trails off. He lets go of the locket, leaving it to land in his own lap. Hol slowly takes the locket and turns it around. Engraved on it were SP and JPP. Hol Horse wanted to ask Polnareff what this was all about, but he only saw Polnareff’s face quickly pale. Only fear and dread filled his face. Polnareff cautiously reached his forehead to remove the damp towel and touch the pale skin behind it. He looked like he was about to throw up. 

“We’re not safe. I’m not safe,” Polnareff whimpers. 

“What does this have to do with your forehead?” Hol Horse somewhat dumbly asks. Polnareff looks back up at Hol Horse. He parts the hair from his widow’s peak and reveals a bump. It squirms and moves, the bud is alive. 

“I’m not sure how I forgot, but Dio put this in me,” Polnareff shakingly states.

“What do you mean they put it in you?”

“I mean, it is stuck in my brain,” Polnareff remarks. “I’ve seen someone perish while on a mission once. It was during the day. I saw the bud on their forehead shrivel up and turn into dust when the head of the guy cracked open due to another stand user. I thought nothing of it, thinking it was just a stupid stand attack that created that dust and bud itself. I guess I was mistaken,” Polnareff confesses. Polnareff then started to reach back up to his forehead again. “It hurts, it really hurts.”

“Why haven't you tried to remove it yet?”

“I can’t Hol. Something tells me I really can’t do that.”

“But why!” Hol Horse partially yells.

“If I do, I will die.”

Chapter Text

Information, horrid information to take into account. Hol Horse felt the cat get his tongue, what could he even do? 

“D-die?” Hol Horse stutters, terrified for his friend. Polnareff hesitantly nods his head up and down in grimace. He then looks over to Hol, looking more alarmed now.

“I remember now. Dio physically stuck it into my brain. It’s a feeling but one wrong move trying to remove it, I die,” Polnareff states. “You need to leave. If Dio finds you and with what I know now,” Polnareff begs while pointing up to the squirming bud in his forehead, “he will kill both of us.”

“Leave? Are ya outta your goddamn mind!” Hol Horse yells, just loud enough to get his disbelief across but not loud enough for others to listen in on. “I’m not leaving you alone,” Hol Horse sternly declares. He’s not going off alone again.

“You idiot! I’ll be dead weight to you, I’ll slow you down! You have a better chance of escaping anyways. Dio still needs me, I’m still…nevermind. You need to leave,” Pol argues back. He faintly summons Chariot, making him push Hol Horse away. However, the shove was too weak to do anything. Hol Horse shakes his head, he looks back at Polnareff.

“Just because you have that stupid bud doesn't mean you're completely inert,” Hol Horse argues. “Plus, I have an idea, pardner. Can you handle your headache for just a li’l longer?” 

“You don’t have to do this,” Pol says, trying to get Hol to leave, fearful with every opportunity of escape shrinking for his friend. Polnareff looks really determined to just make Hol Horse leave.

“Can you handle a li’l more pain?” Hol Horse asks again, hoping for Pol to hear him out. Polnareff nods slightly, giving Hol a chance to propose something. “Good, good, now listen. You said Dio’s sending you to Hong Kong, right?” Hol Horse asks.

“Yeah, what about it?” Polnareff answers.

“How soon can ya leave for Hong Kong?” Hol asks. Polnareff gets stuck in thought for a second before registering what Hol Horse had just said. 

“You don’t mean…” Polnareff says, letting Hol Horse fill in his sentence.

“We can leave now! It won’t be too suspicious if Dio and the others know you’re leaving. It’ll just look like you’re on a regular mission and I’m tagging along,” Hol Horse says. “We get the plane tickets, we leave immediately, and nobody will know.”

“What about the bud?” Pol asks. 

“We’ll deal with it later, it's probably some stand stuff we got to figure out. Maybe we could figure out Dio’s stand in the process…maybe. Get your bags packed, I’m packing mine as well. Just wait for me at the main entrance, alright?” Hol Horse states, earning a nod from Polnareff.

“Good, I’ll get the tickets and then we go. I’ll find a way to sneak myself on the plane… somehow. Ready?” Hol Horse asks, reaching out his hand to Polnareff. The Frenchman looks down at the Texan’s hand, seeming to contemplate whether he should go through with Hol’s plan. Then he smiles. Polnareff reaches his hand out, clasping it with Hol Horse’s hand. Hol Horse pulls Polnareff out of bed and stands him up.

“Ready,” Polnareff replies, wobbling a little from lightheadedness. Hol Horse smirks back at Polnareff. Polnareff quickly grabs his string bag and puts everything he has in it. Polnareff doesn’t have a lot to pack so gathering everything together didn't take too long. Hol Horse watches Polnareff finish packing and prepares to get the plane tickets.

Hol Horse opens the door of Polnareff’s small room, heading into the hallway. He was about to look for the butler, Telence, but Hol Horse almost slips on something beneath his boot.

“Hm?” Hol mutters. Lifting his boot up, a letter is revealed. Hol Horse picks it up and turns it front and back multiple times. No name, nothing. As carefully as he could, he opened the envelope, finding three papers within. Two papers surprisingly seemed to be two plane tickets for Hong Kong, specifically for Polnareff and Hol Horse himself. Just what they needed! But who sent them? The other paper looked to be a note, the writing looked fancy but hurried.

‘What is this?’ Hol Horse thinks, skimming the note. The writing seems frantic.  

[Hello,

If you are planning on doing so and from what I could see, leave and quickly. If you present no harm or malice to Lord DIO, then nobody’s really going to stop you. Nor will I try to sway you two to stay. You’re lucky to have my sympathies. Get rid of this note after reading, I can’t risk this getting out.

Take care,

An Associate of Yours

P.S. You owe me.]

‘ Who wrote this?’ Hol Horse thinks as he rereads the letter. The thought that someone might know about the plan to run away frightens Hol Horse. At least this secret messenger doesn’t seem too malicious in their intention of writing the note. Whatever, Hol Horse has what he needs. He pockets the note and tickets.

“Polnareff, change of plans. Wait for me outside,” Hol Horse ordered while sticking his head through the door. Polnareff turns around with his string bag, nodding at Hol Horse. “I’ll pack up my stuff and then we go,” Hol Horse reiterates again. Polnareff leaves his room for the last time while Hol Horse splits up with him, heading down to his own room. 

Hol Horse opens his room’s door; a twisted sense of nostalgia builds within him while looking into the room. He’s lived in this room for a month now, longer than anywhere else he’s scavenged around. Inevitably, it’s time to move on yet again. 

Hol Horse grabs his extra clothing, cigars, other items scattered about, and a necklace he had bought a few days ago. A golden cross threaded through black as coal thread. Hol hoped it would protect him, and he hopes it will serve its purpose now. Everything Hol Horse picked up was thrown into a backpack that he found somewhere in the mansion, it’s time to go. Looking back at his room one last time, Hol Horse observes the cracks on the walls, the antique looking furniture, and takes in the old, wooden smells. 

‘Good riddance, I hope to never come back.’ Hol Horse walks out of his now old room, eager to finally get away from Cairo as soon as possible. Hol Horse really wants to head home back to the states. The universe however, had different plans for Hol Horse, sending someone to cross with Hol’s path. Hol Horse looks to his right in the hallway. Heavy steps echo through the hall, a built man comes into sight. Hol Horse wanted no part in whatever the deal is with this bald, freak of a man. The man looked hideous. His clothing is even worse, dirty and ruined. His eyes were a dull gray, different to Polnareff’s eyes from that fateful night a month ago. The hands looked twisted, rigid, and dirty. They were both right hands. 

Two Right Hands.

“Where are you off in a hurry?” the man asked in a husky voice, chuckling in a weird manner.

‘This man, could he be the person Polnareff talked about?” Hol Horse wondered, going off what Polnareff had told him time and time again about this mystery man. 

“I said, where are you off in a hurry?” the man asked again with irritation, now visibly closer to Hol Horse. 

“None of your business, stranger,” Hol Horse says, trying to mask his now growing anxiety. 

“The name’s J Geil. I don’t like repeating myself, so where are you off to?” J Geil asks yet again, placing a hand on Hol Horse’s shoulder. Hol Horse starts to feel anger bubble within him, he doesn’t like people touching him.

“On a mission, Dio’s sending me on a mission,” Hol Horse answers, trying to cover up anything about his plan. 

“That’s strange, I thought the snob Polnareff and that sailor guy were scheduled to leave a few minutes ago,” the grotesque man notes. Hol Horse’s breath hitches. “You’re not on a mission, are you?” J Geil questions, his grip on Hol Horse growing tighter. “The French snob and that fake Captain should already be gone by now, I think you’re coming with me,” J Geil says, whispering the last part with a smile. Hol Horse couldn't take it anymore, he felt irate.

“GET OFF ME YA BOOT LICKER!” Hol Horse yells, whipping out his emperor. He slams his gun into the back of J Geil. The grotesque man was not expecting Hol Horse to fight against him, he squirmed on the floor. Hol Horse stands in place for a few moments, processing what he’d just done. He needs to leave now. Hol Horse turns around to run to the main entrance. The yells of J Geil echo through the hallway, a figure appears below Hol Horse on the reflective tiles. Hol Horse is faster than the bandaged, frail figure, getting away and out the hallway.

A grand clock rings out, signifying noon. Hol Horse doesn't have much time left. His flight is a few hours from now, according to the tickets. Hol Horse sees the entrance door; he remembers something he needs to deal with before taking a cab to the airport. Hol Horse jumps out the door. 

“Polnareff!” Hol Horse yells. Polnareff fumbles around a little due to the sudden loud noise, almost dropping something.

“Mon Dieu! You almost gave me a heart attack!” Polnareff complains. Hol Horse ignores the complaints of Polnareff, grabbing Pol’s wrist. 

“Now, we got to go now!” Hol Horse spits out in a frenzy. Polnareff shuts up, seemingly going on high alert due to Hol’s panic. Hol Horse then tugs Polareff, running off to the back of the nearest alleyway. It was far enough from the mansion for him and Polnareff to be out of sight.

“Your stand, you’ve talked about it being fast before,” Hol Horse points out, letting Polnareff go.

“Yeah, what about it?” Polnareff replies.

“If it’s that precise and swift, your Chariot can take out the bud!” Hol Horse exclaims, having thought up this idea on the spot. 

“Use Chariot? You’re crazy, I can’t even see my head!”

“We don’t have time, pardner, alright! I trust your stand, he seems real quick. Should get the job done,” Hol Horse notes.

“What if I miss, my Chariot can’t see anything! I already told you I’d die if I mess up,” Polnareff reminds him.

“It’s better than not doing anything at all, I can help guide you at least. I promise,” Hol Horse says, knowing their time to escape is growing less by the second. The promise, he doesn’t know if he can keep it or not but it’s better than doing nothing at all. Polnareff opens his mouth a few times, acting as if he were a fish out of water. Then he stays still, seemingly thinking about what Hol Horse said. Then, Polnareff gives his answer.

“...alright, mon cher ami,” Polnareff answers, manifesting his nobel Silver Chariot. Hol Horse has only seen the magnificent stand a few times during his month at Dio’s mansion. The Chariot looks brilliant and innocent. But it's time for it to get something important done, something not so innocent or greatly brilliant.

“His sword looks thin enough, he should do fine,” Hol Horse mutters to himself as he examines the rapier. Hol Horse pulls out his lighter and flips it open, holding the flame under the rapier. He hopes the fire makes the removal easier. Small beads of sweat trickle down Polnareff’s face as Chariot takes his rapier back. Chariot faces their user, pointing up his rapier and lining it up the best he could with the horrid bud. “Now listen really closely. Move them a little to the left.” Polnareff moves Chariot. “Move him a little up.” Polnareff moves Chariot up a bit. “Perfect! Now, just give that bud a poke and pull it out in a jiff.” Polnareff shivers, his eyes looking at his stand’s sword. Then, he takes a deep breath, he stops shaking. Hol Horse sees some sort of courage built behind Polnareff’s eyes, he’s going to take his shot.

“HORA!” Chariot cries out, sending its rapier into the bud and in the same movement, pulling it out with no resistance. Hol Horse sees the tendrils of the flesh bud, is this even the power of a stand? The bud twists, curls and shrivels up in the sun, it looks to be in pain. It almost looked like it was trying to grab onto something else. Chariot disappears and Polnareff wobbles, looking tired. Suddenly, Pol falls.

“Pardner!” Hol yells, running up to Polnareff and catching him before he hits the grimy ground. Hol Horse splits the hair from Polnareff’s widow's peak. A small hole is present, it looked a little red but nothing too serious. Hol Horse puts his ear to Polnareff’s chest, hoping to hear something, anything that could signify life. The short amount of time between Polnareff falling and Hol catching him felt long and grueling. Nothing sounded out for the first second, leaving Hol Horse to panic in mind. But then…

A heartbeat.

Polnareff had a heartbeat. He was alive, Hol let out a relieved breath. He tries to sit Polnareff back up.

“Thank goodness,” Hol Horse exhales under his breath, slowly taking out bandages from his bag. He wraps some around Polnareff’s head. That parasite in Pol’s head was finally gone. Hol Horse felt happy for his pal, but this happiness wouldn’t last forever. Along with the sound of the beating heart, a ticking noise sounds out. His watch! Hol Horse looks down at his watch, it's five minutes after noon. Was all this really that quick? No matter, they have time and it’s time to get the hell outta Cairo. Hol Horse stands up and swings one of Polnareff’s arms around his shoulder, trying to carry him by the side. A few white strands of hair fall onto Hol’s shoulder. He also picks up Pol’s bag and swings it on his back.

Hol trudges out the alley with an out cold Polnareff, he looks out at the street. Polnareff wasn't too heavy, but walking the sidewalks of Cairo did feel hard under the heat and the stares of others. It was hard to carry Polnareff under the beating sun, but Hol Horse saw a vehicle with its owner resting on the side of the road. Hol Horse looks back at Polnareff who he's dragging along the sidewalk.

“We’re going to be alright, pardner,” Hol Horse whispers as he gets closer to the car ahead of them. They’re going to get out. They’re going to be free. 

｡ﾟ•┈꒰ა ♡ ໒꒱┈•  ｡ﾟ

Fuzzy, everything felt warm and fuzzy. The mind swam and sounds all around echoed, everything felt like a blur. Eyes flutter and try to shut, wanting the addictive substance called rest and peace. Though, a voice sounds out in all the fuzziness.

“_a__  u_  pa_d___.” Nothing but white noise. The voice rings out again.

“Wa_e up pa_dn_r.” It doesn’t make sense, who-what was going on?

“Wake up pardner, we’re here!” a Texan accented voice shouts. Polnareff snaps his eyes open. Now he remembers, he remembers the mansion. Polnareff remembers Dio, he remembers the flesh bud-wait.

“Polnareff, calm down please. I was afraid you wouldn’t get up, not about to see you blackout again,” Hol Horse says, trying to lower Polnareff’s nerves. Polnareff reaches his hand up to his forehead. Upon touching his head, he only felt a hole and no bump. 

‘It’s gone,’ Polnareff thinks in awe, lightly tapping his forehead a few more times. He doesn’t believe it, it’s actually gone.

“You’re not hurt, are ya? You’re usually never this quiet,” Hol Horse buds into Polnareff’s thinking, elbow on the seat and looking into the backseat of the car. Polnareff tried to quickly sit up straight, mentally cursing himself as well from the lightheadedness of getting up too fast.

“I’m all fine and well!” Polnareff proclaims as he scoffs at the comment Hol Horse made. The Frenchman looks back up at Hol Horse. A face of relief Polnareff meets, Hol Horse looks just as happy as Polnareff feels free. Polnareff relaxes, he closes his eyes and exhales.

“Come on, we’re gonna be late if we linger any longer,” Hol Horse announces. Polnareff’s eyes widened a little. That’s right, they have a flight to catch. To his left, Polnareff found his bag, he grabbed it and hopped out of the backseat of the car. Hol Horse followed suit after he paid the driver, jumping out of the passenger seat. Hol Horse then abruptly stops in his tracks.

“Wait, did we remember our passports?” the Texan asks in a panic. 

‘Shoot! I should’ve asked back at the mansion!’ Polnareff chastises himself.

Polnareff and Hol Horse search through their bags, both pulling out their passports and singing out of relief. 

“I really thought we had to go back!” Polnareff exclaims.

“Excuse me for not checking with Dio’s creeps on our tails!” Hol Horse yells back. A moment of silence passes, and both the two men break out into laughter. Well, most likely anxious and awkward laughter but who cares. They have the passports after all. 

“Goddamn close one,” Hol Horse mutters under his breath in between his laughter. Polnareff pulls his string bag back up while Hol Horse slides on his worn backpack. 

“Have any idea how long it’ll take us?” Hol Horse asks while the two men walk towards the entrance of Cairo airport. 

“No idea,” Polnareff replies. They push through the glass door to reveal lines upon lines of people checking into the airport, the two men groan.

┈┈・୨ ✦ ୧・┈┈

Polnareff bounces his leg up and down, restless in place. Beside him, Hol Horse snores lightly as he sleeps in some crummy chair. Polnareff and Hol Horse thankfully didn’t need to take forever to check into the airport. They didn’t have much they were taking with them anyways. Now, they had to wait at the lounge for their flight to be called. Polnareff readjusts his pink neck scarf he had recently bought, having had to beg Hol Horse to get it. He looks at the departure board. The letters and numbers all rotate, their flight shows how passengers are about to be loaded on.

“Hey, wake up! We’re about to go!” Polnareff alarms Hol Horse as he nudges him. One of Hol Horse’s snoring gets interrupted, and he flinches. His hat falls off by mistake. A few people turn towards the flailing cowboy, Polnareff trying to hide some embarrassment. 

“Wah? Wait, we’re about to go!” Hol Horse visibly realizes, swinging his feet off of his backpack and jumping out of his seat. He picks his hat back up and adjusts it while looking at the departure board. A voice on the intercom comes on, informing everyone about the most recent flight about to get loaded.

“Come on!” Polnareff exclaims, getting up and tugging Hol Horse to the slowly building up line of people at their gate. They have to go through the painstaking line of people to get checked for their passports and tickets, but it was worth it to finally get outside the airport and see the plane they're going to take. Polnareff’s eyes scan through all the planes and their humongous size, amazing. He sees the boarding stairs and heads for them, Hol Horse following in suit. They go up the boarding stairs and into the cool cabin of the plane. They quickly put away their carry-on bags and start looking for their seats. Fortunately, Polnareff and Hol Horse’s seats are right next to each other. Polnareff sees he has a middle seat. 

“You have a window seat,” Polnareff points out as he looks at Hol’s ticket. Polnareff sees Hol Horse gloss over both of their tickets and sighs.  

“If you were gonna bug me, I wasn’t planning on sitting by the window,” Hol Horse says, making space for Polnareff to enter the three seated space. Polnareff sits by the window, feeling happy. Hol Horse sits in the middle seat, despite the aisle seat being open.

 More people start to fill up the plan until most of the seats are filled. Funny enough, the aisle seat still wasn’t taken. Flight attendants went around preparing for the flight and people buckled up, listening at what the pilots had to say. The plane enters taxi mode, Polnareff eagerly looks out the window. It drives along the runway, bumping up and down there and then. The plane abruptly stops, only to launch really fast really quickly. In only a few seconds, the plane takes off and flies. Polnareff keeps his eyes wide gaze out the window, watching as the ground grows smaller and smaller. 

“You seeing this, Hol?” Polnareff excitedly asks, looking to the side of him. He sees Hol Horse gripping the seat’s handles. 

“Must look nice,” Hol Horse shakingly replies, keeping his head turned away from the window. He instead pulls out his Walkman, quickly putting in his earbuds. Polnareff shrugs it off and continues to look at the marvelous view. Polnareff knows it’ll take a long time to reach Hong Kong, but only hopes the trip will be quick. 

The sky and the clouds, they looked beautiful. Polnareff thinks of someone, his smile dampens. He still misses her, his sister Sherry. Polnareff feels as if he’s betrayed Sherry by forgetting her and working with that freak Dio. Maybe after this trip, he will find the man with two right hands. The two-blood stained right hands that killed his sister, leaving her forever gone, all alone. The clouds outside catch the eyes of Polnareff. They are puffy, almost golden from the sun. Almost welcoming and inviting.

‘What does it feel like to rest among the clouds?’

Chapter Text

A low buzz sounds throughout the cabin of the plane. It was dark and everyone looked to be asleep. Hol Horse, being the ever-vigilant cowboy he is, was still awake. He doesn’t like sleeping on planes, it’s hard to sleep in them anyways. Hol Horse looks over to his left. The usually energetic Frenchman was out like a light, peacefully resting his head on Hol Horse’s shoulder. He was awake earlier during the flight but fatigue seemed to catch up to the guy. He said he still had a headache. 

‘Is that parasite really gone?’ Hol Horse thinks. Before he ponders any longer, Hol hears a snore. He looks back down at the sleeping man on his shoulder. Everything is okay. He sighs.

‘Just this once Polnareff. I can’t really be seen like this,’ Hol Horse thinks, looking back at the Frenchman sleeping peacefully on his shoulder. Staring off into nothingness gets boring very fast for the almost half a day plane ride, there’s only so much Hol Horse could do sitting in place. From the occasional person walking up the aisle and a weird announcement from the captain, absolutely nothing happened. How boring. Though, the trip was coming to its end. A small announcement from the pilot alerts the passengers of the plane’s descent. Hol Horse taps Polnareff’s shoulder.

“Hey, wake up,” Hol Horse calmly whispers. Polnareff stirs a little and sits up in his seat. He seems grouchy.

“Are we there yet?” Polnareff yawns out, attempting to rub the sleep from his eyes. It looks like Polnareff hasn’t realized he had slept on his shoulder. Was he that tired to not even realize? 

“We’re about to land,” Hol announces as he lifts the window cover. It was really dark outside, but Hol Horse could faintly see the ground grow closer and closer. “As soon as we get out of here, we’ll rest up and plan a trip to the States.”

“America?” Polnareff questions.

“Yeah, hoping you’d tag along. We could leave Dio and Cario all behind. They won’t find us there.”

“...yeah,” Polnareff mutters, looking away from Hol Horse.

“What’s wrong?” Hol inquiries Pol.

“Nothing,” Polnareff replies. Hol Horse hums in acknowledgement, observing the other passengers preparing for landing. The plane descends down to the runway, tilting side to side on its descent. The plane roughly touches down and Hol Horse along with Polnareff bounce out of their seats for a moment.

“This pilot’s terrible!” Polnareff whines, now fully awake. The plane glides along the runway, soon stopping at its destination to load people off. People got up and went to the exits of the plane. Hol and Pol got up and made their way to the exits as well, climbing down the stairs connecting to the plane. A small bus was waiting for the passengers not too far from the plane. The two men hop onto the bus and grab the poles, the bus starting a few minutes later.

“So, what do we do after customs?” Polnareff questions, checking his bag for his passport. 

“Simple, we take a taxi and lay low at some inn. Then, we leave.”

“We’re not getting tickets now?”

“Not during the middle of the night, ya doofus! Plus, ‘m tried.”

“Oh,” Polnareff lets out. The bus comes to a sudden halt, Polnareff jolts forward. Hol Horse quickly grabs the hem of Pol’s jacket, pulling him back.

“Thanks,” Polnareff mutters, trying to straighten himself back up. Hol Horse only grumbles a response back. The doors slide open, and the two men exit, their belongings in tow. They enter Hong Kong Airport, having to go through multiple sets of stairs to get to the customs area. Once past the annoying customs and after trading out their money (or at least what little they had), they finally emerge from the airport.

“Fresh air!” Polnareff laughs, his hands in the air stretched out. Cool air starts to blow, Pol’s hair flows in the breeze. He looks very happy. Actually, this is the best looking Polnareff has looked after leaving the mansion. Yeah, Hol Horse could get used to seeing the man like this. 

“About damn time we got some,” Hol Horse adds on, celebrating alongside Polnareff. He puts his hands on his hips, he feels proud. Finally out of Cairo, never coming back. First however, they need somewhere to go.

Hol Horse looked around his surroundings. He saw busy streets and lights all about in the darkness of the night. Tall buildings stood tall and bright. Cars zoomed across the roads. Hol Horse spots a car in the distance. He and Polnareff flag it down, and the car pulls up in front of them. The driver rolls down the window and looks back and forth between the two men. The driver then starts to speak a language neither of the two men understand.

“Ya picking up any of this?” Hol asks Polnareff.

“Not a single damn bit, tell him were tourists,”

“Hey uh, we’re tourists,” Hol Horse tells the man. The man perks up at the word and gratefully lets Hol Horse and Polnareff into the backseat. The man doesn’t drive until Hol Horse gives him money though, so Hol pays the driver, hoping he isn’t being scammed. The car’s engine sparks back to life, allowing the driver to shift gear and drive off.

“Where to?” the driver asks.

“The nearest inn from here,” Hol Horse replies. The car continues down the busy road, Hol Horse looks out the window. A whole range of diversity hits the man’s eyes. Tall buildings, bright lights, and the few people who walked the roads made Hong Kong feel alive despite it being around the dark hours. Hol Horse shifts his head to look at Polnareff, seeing that even he is taking in what the night has to offer. 

The trip lasted around half an hour, the driver dropping Hol and Pol onto the front entrance of an inn. The driver then asks for pay to which Hol Horse annoyingly-

“Now just wait a moment, I already paid you!” Hol Horse yells. The driver sweats a little, rolling his window back up and quickly drives away. Hol Horse and Polnareff finally head into the inn. They meet up with the front desk, grab a key, and find their room on the fourth floor. 

Upon opening the door, they are met with a simple room with two beds and a smaller box shaped television on a table. Polnareff tosses his bag and boots to the side and dashes over to one of the beds, flopping down on it.

“Are you really that tired? You slept through the whole plane ride!” Hol Horse says.

“Shut up, these are way more comfortable than those dumb chairs.”

“Fair enough.” Hol Horse kicks his own boots off and takes off his vest. He lays down on the other bed, tucking himself in. The warmth and fluff relaxes Hol, letting him flutter his eyes closed.

“Hey, can ya hit the lights?” Hol asks.

“Yeah sure,” Pol responds. The metal sound of Chariot rings out as they manifest and turn off the lights, leaving as fast as he manifested. A yawn could be heard from the tuckered-out Frenchman.

“Bonne nuit.” Hol Horse laid still, trying to make out what Polnareff had said.

“...good night.”

⋅ ∙ ∘ ☽ ༓ ☾ ∘ ⋅ ⋅

Faint, dim light bleeds through the small slit of a curtain. The hotel room has a sort of warm, fuzzy vibe to it. A man stirs around in bed, seemingly beginning to wake up. He arises from bed, stretching and yawning. He looks to his right, seeing a frizzled-haired man still with a hat on. 

“Heh,” Polnareff chuckles to himself. From what he’s seen, Hol Horse is always up by the break of dawn. This time looks to be an exception for monsieur Horse. 

‘Man, I’m bored.’ Polnareff gets out of bed and sits onto the edge of his bed. He grabs a remote from the small table with the television, turning on the screen. The grainy quality of the screen displays a pretty hot chick reporting on something. She and a report team are on a boat, something is in the background.

‘ Man, I wanted sports. Well, what could the news be saying? ’

“Later last night, a plane crashed into the South China Sea. As of now, all passengers have been evacuated or recovered from the wreckage,” the reporter announces. Polnareff takes a moment to process the information. ‘Plane crash report first thing in the morning? Nothing can wake him up more than news like that, right?’ Polnareff wonders as he’s about to turn the television off until the news reporter speaks again.

“This just in, a second plane was directly in the trajectory of the downed plane. Fortunately, that plane landed safely last night. Hong Kong Airport has canceled all flights for the time being. More information at noon,” the reporter finishes. Curse irony.

“A PLANE ALMOST CRASHED INTO US!” Polnareff exclaims. This in turn causes Hol Horse to launch himself towards the headboard, hitting his head. Polnareff freezes, turning around to look at Hol in guilt. Hol Horse groans, turning around and rising from bed.

“That’s nice, now give me a few more minutes to sleep…wait. A PLANE ALMOST HIT US!” Hol Horse yells back at Polnareff, seemingly having to do a double take in mind. Polnareff watches as Hol Horse looks at him for a moment before grabbing the bridge of his nose, sighing. “Guess we dodged a bullet.” Polnareff turns off the television and sets the remote down. 

“What now? I know damn sure I’m not taking a plane now.” 

“Polnareff, we only need to last one more day and we’ll be in the States. Let’s just look for some chow and hang low,” Hol Horse replies, taking his hat off. He runs his fingers through his hair, attempting to quickly fix the frizziness.

“You never really take your hat off, cowboy.”

“Thought I’d keep it off for a change,” Hol Horse replied. Polnareff shrugs, grabbing his bag and taking out hair spray. 

Polnareff goes into the cramped but thankfully clean bathroom to style up his hair. He unravels this bandage on his forehead and looks into the mirror. He still has a little hole near his widow’s peak. Besides that, Polnareff still looks the same. Polnareff sighs as he turns the sink faucet on and washes his face. He then grabs his hairspray and starts bombarding his silver locks with the spray.

“You’re still putting it up like that?” Hol Horse asks from the main room.

“Why not? Are you calling my hair bad?” Polnareff rebuts as he keeps spraying and shaping his hair. It’s almost back in its column shape.

“Maybe,” Hol Horse says with a sly smile that Polnareff almost misses.

“Hey!” Polnareff yells, sticking his head out of the bathroom while adjusting a stray hair. Hol Horse didn't seem to listen though. 

Polnareff walks out of the bathroom, fully refreshed. Hol Horse puts on his vest and an extra jacket on, leaving the white vest open. Polnareff had slipped on a tube top along with a jacket loosely hanging over his shoulders. Both slid on their boots and left their room to get outside of the hotel.

The streets of Hong Kong looked vivid and lively. People walked up and down the streets and cars went by. Food vendors populated the same streets, children begging their parents for sweets and candy from the vendors. Polnareff feels amazed by his environment, but he gets dragged out of his sightseeing by a small jab at his shoulder. 

“Pol, look at him,” Hol Horse whispers, pointing over to a tall grandpa-like man.

“HOT COLA? But Cola is supposed to be cold!” the foxy grandpa yells, continuing to complain to the food vendor selling hot cola. Polnareff howls in laughter while Hol Horse tries to hide his chuckles. People are funny. The two men keep walking around until they find a restaurant and decide to head in. Polnareff slides into a chair of a two seated table while Hol Horse slumps into his own seat. 

A kind waiter drops off two menus for Polnareff and Hol Horse, who grab the menus and look through them. However, the menus are in a different language.

“Guess we randomly pick, hope you have a strong stomach,” Hol Horse teases.

“I’ll have you know, I’m not that picky,” Polnareff retorts. Polnareff busies himself by looking through his menu, so much so that he doesn’t notice a group of people entering the restaurant as well. 

It’s the same old guy from before with a little group. Maybe he’ll complain about something else here, it’ll be funny to watch! Hol Horse looks over to observe the group, only to turn around quickly. 

“Is there something wrong?” Polnareff asks in concern. Hol Horse isn’t smiling anymore, he is fiddling with his necklace. He looks up at Polnareff and grabs his jacket hood. He flips Polnareff’s hood up, despite his tall hair making it difficult, and he then flips his own hood up.

“Listen, I know we just sat down but we need to leave and when I mean leave, I mean leave right now.”

“Why? There’s nothing wrong here, right?” Polnareff asks, trying to stay optimistic. Nothing seems wrong, there’s just friendly people and staff all around. Nothing wrong with that!

“That Avdol guy, the one we had to hunt. He’s here.” Polnareff freezes, an uneasy aura starts to fill up the dining room of the restaurant. 

“You mean the one who hurt you?”

“Y E S,” Hol Horse hisses quietly. 

“We just need to sneak off quietly and no need to bother them, right?” Polnareff suggests. It sounds simple enough. He watches Hol Horse dwindle on the suggestion, that was until the Avdol guy mentioned something in his conversation with the old man.

“Dio,” Avdol had said. He probably said other things that connected to Dio but that made Hol Horse and Polnareff whip their heads around towards the group. 

Big mistake.

“What’s with the staring? Piss off,” a man in all black angrily said. 

“Jotaro, be nice. They probably don’t mean any harm,” the grandpa spoke up. The rest of the group turned towards Hol Horse and Polnareff, who at this point were hiding in their jackets. The old man then widens his eyes, realizing that they responded to the word ‘DIO’.

“Wait, they’re enemy stand users!” the old man yells. The whole group suddenly stands up, all of them starting to manifest their stands. Flashes of blue, purple, red, and green appear. All of this causes Hol Horse to grip Polnareff’s wrist and HOTFOOT IT OUT OF THERE!

“PARDNER, WE NEED TO RUN!” Hol Horse yells. 

Polnareff and Hol Horse barge out of the establishment’s doors, running down the streets. The group of stand users hot on their tails. No matter how fast the two men run, the group keeps gaining on them. That’s when Hol Horse and Polnareff look at each other, making a split-second decision.

“Split up!” the two men yell at each other. Pol and Hol separate. Ponareff, running off to God knows where, sees Hol Horse run a separate direction and trip over some ledge. He’s nowhere in sight of their pursuers anymore. All the pursuers ignore Hol, still chasing Polnareff. Great, just wonderful.

“Hey, get back here!” one of them yells. Polnareff starts to sweat, a nauseous feeling forming in his stomach. He tries to run faster, his legs start to burn a little. Normally, he wouldn’t mind going for a duel but there are way too many people and they possibly know about who Hol Horse is. It’s too dangerous, he just needs to outrun them. They can’t follow him forever.

Polnareff takes a sharp corner around a building and jumps down to a lower level of the surrounding environment. He crouches in some bushes, covering his own mouth to keep quiet.

‘They possibly can’t find me,’ Polnareff thinks as he breathes heavily, hoping he’s safe. His legs hurt, really hurt. Then, hee starts to feel his legs go numb. Only a poking sensation remains. 

‘Wait, what’s poking me?’ 

“I think I found him!” another man from the group exclaimed. Polnareff chokes out his held breath, snapping his head down to his right leg. A green and white tendril is wrapped around it.

Raw panic.

That’s the only feeling that flooded Polnareff. How could he let this happen! He swore there wasn’t anything near him earlier.

“Chariot!” Polnareff shrieks, sending out his silver pal to cut the green tendrils off. Polnareff jumps out his hiding spot, tripping over the bushes and running off again. The group spots him and pursues him yet again. Polnareff starts to get tired, his lungs hurt but he needs to keep running. His hood is starting to fall off, he’s desperately trying to keep it on. Oh how pathetic this feels, he feels he should be braver. 

Hiding places didn’t look to be in abundance, Polnareff finds himself in some scenic garden as a final place to hide. He heads all the way to the other side of the garden, hands on his knees while he pants. He’s too tired to run.

“Show yourself,” a deep voice demands. Polnareff slowly turns around, eyeing his pursuers. A man in an array of robes approaches him, it’s Avdol. Polnareff stays in place, scanning Avdol up and down. He breathes in, breathes out, breathes in again, and breathes out again. He needs to face them. He can’t back out of this. For Hol Horse, for his own nobility. Pol lets out a final exhale, turning his hidden gaze back up at the group. He whips his jacket off, revealing his face and structure. The group jolts with a little surprise as to how Polnareff looks, though they all seem to remain somewhat calm. “Bold of you to stand up against us,” Avdol notes.

“You sound like you want to die first, Monsieur Avdol,” Polnareff mocks, still slightly panting. Avdol only lets a hum out. The dark-skinned man sends a warning flame, setting one of the statues to the side of Polnareff on fire. 

“Most intriguing of you to pick a fight in Tiger Balm Garden, a location that plays into my favor,” Avdol acknowledges. Polnareff darts his eyes around, taking in the vibrant, colorful sight of the scenery. All of the garden is open space. Polnareff returns his eyes back to focus back on Avdol. 

“It wouldn’t be fair to fight in a cramped establishment,” Polnareff retorts. Chariot is sent out and he slashes the statue up. The statue now looks circular, the fire altered to make the hands of a clock. “From what I’ve learned, you’re a fortune teller. I want to make a prediction. I believe I will beat you before noon,” Polnareff predicts. He really doesn’t want to hurt or even kill anyone but if worse comes to worst, he might have to. The fire on the crudely crafted clock dissolves, Avdol stares down Polnareff. Their eyes lock, a silent contract seemingly being made to fight each other. A battle that could result in battery and possibly death.

“Don’t hold back now then,” Avdol answers to Polnareff’s prediction, sending his stand out. Polnareff’s world seems to freeze, he watches Magician’s red form approach closer to him. A fiery, majestic bird is ready to take him on. There’s only one thing Polnareff can do now. 

“SILVER CHARIOT!”

Chapter Text

“Jean? Jean-Pierre! Are you sleeping?” a little girl asks. Jean opens his eyes, he sees the starry sky and something else as well. The same girl with her curly, black hair hangs her head just a few inches away from his face. Heh, it looks funny from his perspective. 

“What? No! I’m not sleeping Sherry,” Jean laughs as he gets up from the soft grass, Sherry moves slightly out of the way.

“You promised me that we would watch the stars together this time!” Sherry whines, tugging on Jean’s short sleeve. 

“Yeah, I guess I did,” Jean answers, scratching the back of his head. Sherry tugs again is finally able to get her brother to move. Finally, Sherry’s stubbornness paid off. They have some stars to find.

Jean and Sherry run across the grassy field, crickets chirping all around them. Sherry quickly bends down to pick something up. She picks up two white lilies, both beautiful and bright. She trots over to Jean and puts a lily in his silky, white hair. Jean in return puts the second lily in Sherry’s curly, jet black hair. The flowers are wonderful. Jean loves how they look. Sherry loves the joyous smell.

“We look wonderful!” Sherry exclaims. The two kids pick up the pace on their small journey through the meadow, Jean almost clumsily tripping on a rock. They come across a tree with a crudely made wooden ladder. They’ve done this multiple times, this time is no different. The two kids climb the ladder and perch themselves onto a thick, sturdy branch. Jean looks out to the starry sky. A shiney shooting star passes by.

“Woah.” 

“Jean, we have to make a wish!” Sherry says as she shake’s Jean’s shoulder. 

“Yeah! Hm…” Jean hums, thinking of his wish. He claps his hands together and closes his eyes. Jean then bounces up, opening his eyes back up.

“I’ve got mine!” Jean exclaims while he swings his legs.

“What is it?” Sherry asks. Jean giggles, nudging his sister’s shoulder. 

“I can’t tell you. If I do, then it won’t come true!”

“Aw, I really want to know.”

“Nuh uh!” Jean says, crossing his arms and smiling. Sherry blows a raspberry towards Jean, which only makes Jean laugh. The two kids turn away from each other and look back at the starry sky. Sherry rests her head on Jean’s shoulder. Jean likes the night and the stars, it feels nice.

“Hey, Jean?”

“Hm?”

“We will always be together, right?” Sherry asks. Jean cares for his sister, his main and most important job. They don’t have any parents to look after them anyways. Just distant relatives and faraway residents of their small village. If there’s one thing Jean doesn’t want, it’s for his sister to feel sad and alone. What type of brother would he be if his sister wasn’t happy?

“We will always be together! It’s just us against the world, you and me!” Sherry looks back up at Jean, hoping for reassurance from him about his claim. “I promise, pinkie promise!” Jean says as he out reaches his pinky. Sherry smiles as she reaches her pinky out too. She then turns back to observe the night sky. It’s them against the world. Nothing will ever split them apart…right? No, they will always be together. Nothing can destroy that light of hope. It will always keep burning.

✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦

Burning, this battle will go down in flames with this enemy stand user. Chariot stands protectively beside their user, he readies his rapier for battle. Polnareff casts his gaze at the bird of flames.

“Red bind!” Avdol yells, manifesting bright red whirls of flame to grab ahold of Polnareff. The hot binds quickly surprised and wrapped around Polnareff, the heat getting very close to causing burns on Polnareff’s delicate skin. Polnareff retorts back by slicing off his binds with Chariot, twirling fire back over to Avdol. 

Flick!

The Egyptian’s eyes widened upon seeing his own attack being sent back to him. He jumps out of the way and crashes onto the stone floor. The floor partly cracks.

“Back off! You clearly aren’t a match for moi!” Polnareff exclaims, pointing Chariot’s sword in Avdol’s direction. Avdol arises from his position, dusting off his robe. 

“You’re more experienced than you look, however, you must know I can control my flames to my own will,” Avdol states, his stand hovering closely behind him, posing and flexing. Avdol points at the Frenchman, sending a beam of fire with the help of Magician’s red. 

‘More fire? Is this all this guy has!’ Polnareff attempts to mitigate the fire by spinning Chariot’s sword in a way to form a makeshift air shield in front of him. However, small flames pass through his barrier, burning him. Polnareff intakes a sharp inhale and tumbles down, Avdol silently judges him from afar. Polnareff watches as the garden deteriorates from the flames. Little stones and flowers catch ablaze. A statue above starts to crack. 

“Have you already given up?” Avdol asks, slowly approaching Polnareff. Polnareff exhales and tries to stand back up. His skin still feels a little raw.

“No, far from it!” Polnareff answers with chuckles, standing back up. Avdol doesn’t respond, sending another beam of flames towards Polnareff. The Frenchman this time swiftly moves out of the way, letting the flames hit a wall behind him. He then twirls his rapier around the flames to pick the fire up, only to throw the flames back at Avdol. 

Swoosh!

Avdol only had a second to process the attack before he got thrown over to the other side of the garden. Avdol hits one of the animal statues and doubles over.

“Avdol!” the old man yells.

“Stay back Mr. Joestar!” Avdol yells back, almost tripping over his robe while getting back up. 

‘Wait, Joestar? Wasn’t Dio trying to get rid of someone going under the name Joestar?’ Polnareff ponders about what Avdol said, but not for long. Avdol is back up again, he seems angry. 

“CROSSFIRE HURRICANE!” Avdol cries, his Magician’s Red sending out a large ankh shaped flame towards Polnareff. The attack is fast, really fast. Polnareff only stared at the large attack before him as if he were a deer looking at a headlight. Chariot quickly manifested themself, trying to defend their user. The fire nears closer and closer and…

‘This is going to hurt.’ 

Bang!

Polnareff’s stand and himself were directly mauled by the angry fire. He gets launched back and to the ground, rubble breaking off. Hot, burning flames surrounded him, slowly cooking him alive. It hurt. It felt like goddamn hell to him. Polnareff lays still on his back, his eyes rapidly shaking. He stares at the sky.

‘Has the sun always been this bright?...’

“Is he dead?” a voice asked with urgency. Polnareff could feel eyes watching him.

“No, but critically injured. I wouldn’t expect him to get up for months,” presumably Avdol responded. Polnareff felt pain radiating up and down his body. He knew if he didn’t do anything now, they would hunt down Hol Horse. But he felt so tired, it would be too easy to lie down and give up. Maybe close his eyes and gently fall into the loving grasp of sleep. That would be nice-

No.

He won’t give up. He won’t succumb so easily, no, not him. Chariot starts to twist and shake, the Joestar group turn their heads toward Polnareff’s body. 

“What’s wrong with him!” Mr. Joestar yells. 

“Mr. Avdol, I thought he wouldn’t get back up,” a guy with red hair notes. 

“He shouldn’t,” Avdol mutters. All of a sudden, Chariot explodes, sending their user up into the sky. The fire around the Frenchman extinguishes, spirals of smoke twirl around Polnareff. Polnareff feels a sick stomach feeling on his way up and back down, he wants to throw up, but he still needs to uphold his image. He can’t be the great and chivalrous Polnareff if he messes himself up. His stand catches him, holding him up in a way in which he is almost upside down. Polnareff starts to clap.

“Bravo oh bravo! I admire your strength, but I’m not done with you,” Polnareff taunts. 

“How’s he floating?” Mr. Joestar asks. 

“Ah, you must look closer, Monsieur Joestar!” Polnareff suggests, prompting the group to look at him. The magnificent Silver Chariot is still there.

“Your stand! How’s it going so fast?”

“When Chariot removes his armor, they can move faster. My Chariot moves fast enough to create after images of himself!,” Polnareff explains as he lets himself down, letting Chariot show off slightly by making multiple versions of themself. Polnareff knew he couldn’t show off too much, even if he really wanted to. That’s a stunt for his flesh budded self. He brings Chariot and all his after images close to him again, preparing to send out an attack, anything to disarm Avdol. 

“I’ll take my chances,” Avdol says, manifesting his stand and jumps back into the garden arena. Polnareff’s smirk twitches, they still want to fight him. No matter, he just needs to try harder. Polnareff instantly sends Chariot to ambush Avdol, cutting intricate symbols onto his face. Avdol flinched and stepped back, clearly taken by surprise by Chariot’s speed. Polnareff advances closer, rushing Avdol with his Chariot’s rapier. Avdol tries to spew fire towards Polnareff but misses entirely, hitting another animal statue. Fortunately for Avdol, Polnareff heard rubble fall over behind him, causing him to turn around to check for anyone behind him. This was enough time to let Avdol retreat and straighten himself up.

“CROSSFIRE HURRICANE SPECIAL!” Avdol yells, sending multiple fire ankhs over to Polnareff. Oh, this isn't getting Polnareff this time. Polnareff quickly turns around, his eyes widening at the multiple flame threats closing in on him. Polnareff quickly retracts all his Chariots and jumps back. He sends Chariot to pick up a piece of rubble from behind and shield themself and Polnareff from the oncoming attack. 

Boom!

One stray flame hits the makeshift shield! Then another, and another. Polnareff keeps stepping back and forth, turning left and right, all of this to not get hit by a single ankh. Polnareff’s boots keep making weird sounds on the stone ground. They’re going to be ruined at this rate.

‘How many more, man? Just let up already!’ Polnareff and Chariot spin around too quickly and drop the shield. It almost hits Polnareff’s foot by a hair. Luckily for the two, the fire attack is done, extinguished and gone. Avdol stands shocked as to how a single piece of rubble mitigated all his attacks. Polnareff, taking advantage of Avdol’s shock, rushes over to him and knocks him off his feet. Avdol tries to get up, only to be met with a sharp point from Chariot’s rapier. 

“Stand down, I won,” Polnareff proclaims in multiple quiet breaths. The other group members try to approach Polnareff, to which Polnareff stops them by inching his rapier closer to Avdol’s neck. He’s not in the mood to fight anyone else, too exhausted to carry a second battle out.

“Hey, hey! Stop! Don't come any closer! If you do, I’ll-” but Polnareff doesn’t finish his sentence. He spots a teen. He has red hair and a green school uniform. He looks very familiar. It could be just him but could that be…

“Kakyoin?” Polnareff whispers to himself. He’s heard of someone named Kakyoin who used to be at the mansion. He fit the description with his red, curly hair. It looks so vivid and colorful. Polnareff looked closer at the teen, realizing he had something weird about his forehead. “It can’t be…”

Rumble.

Polnareff felt rumbling under him as he tried to piece together his thoughts. He looked down to see Avdol smirking.

‘The hell?’

“I’m afraid you forgot what I said earlier,” Avdol says.

Rumble, rumble, rumble. 

All of a sudden, fire rushed from underneath Polnareff, blasting him and his stand away. Polnareff didn’t even have time to yell as he was thrown into a nearby stone pillar collapsing onto the ground upon impact. His body feels bruised and beaten. He tries to get up, only to meet the stern face of Avdol. Red ropes of fire sprout out of Magician’s Red, ready for his target.

“Dammit,” Polnareff whimpers. His fists ball up. He tries to push himself up from the ground. He pathetically drops back down. Fire, fire all around. His body feels like fire.

“Please, give up, you’ve given us enough trouble. Now tell us where your partner is and we won’t do anything to you,” Avdol threats. Polnareff looked back and forth between Avdol and the red binds that loomed over him. He doesn’t like them and he especially doesn’t want to be wrapped in them either. “Please, make your choice,” Avdol warns again. The Frenchman looks around, hoping for anything, just something to get himself out of this sticky situation. Alas, there was nothing…except something above them. The statue that was hit earlier, it was about to fall right onto Avdol. This was it, a chance to escape! He just needed to stall and he’d be alright.

Polnareff lightly tries to look up at everyone else. Everyone that Avdol came with, everyone that Avdol wanted to protect. Polnareff’s eyes soften. 

‘This doesn’t feel right, he can’t die after all his work. He won the duel after all, so it makes sense for me to go out in honor. This man, he truly wants to protect his friends. I don’t want to be the person to rip this man’s life away!’ Polnareff gained a sudden burst of energy. Through the burning and pain, Polnareff  got up and lunged towards Avdol. Instead of attacking him, he pushed Avdol out of the way. Polnareff collapses having used up all his energy. He can’t feel his limbs anymore. The statue above them broke off, falling right above Polnareff. This is the end. All Polnareff was useful for was being a distraction and sacrifice in the end. In his final moments, Polnareff hopes Hol Horse to be safe. The Frenchman closes his eyes, awaiting his deserved death. 

“Wait!” a voice yelled out. Polnareff feels warm tendrils wrap around him and tug him out of the way before the large statue remains hit him. Polnareff snapped his eyes open, looking at the large, cracked statue behind him. He looked in front of him to find his savior, seeing the same guy who tried to kill him earlier. Avdol saved him.

“Why did you save me?” Polnareff asked, honestly confused as to why. 

“You thought to put me, an enemy in your eyes, first. It was obligatory for me to return the favor. You’re very self-destructive, you know,” Avdol replies. He extends a hand towards Polnareff to which Polnareff takes it, slowly standing up. “It’s strange to me, you really don’t have any intention of truly hurting me. Do you?” Avdol inquires. It seems like he’s only now just putting two and two together.

“No, I never wanted to fight at all,” Polnareff answers. He looks back at the Joestar group, seeing Kakyoin looking at him. Their eyes connect. 

“You,” Polnareff says as he points at Kakyoin. Kakyoin points a finger at himself, as if asking Polnareff if he means him. “Yeah you, what’s that on your forehead?” Polnareff asks. 

“What about my forehead intrigues you? Is it because mine is smaller than yours?” Kakyoin asks. Rude. 

“Just part your hair, I’m curious about something.”

“Strange, but if I must,” Kakyoin says, splitting the hair near the center of his forehead. 

A small hole.

Kakyoin seems to have noticed Polnareff’s breath shake. It looked like he was about to ask Polnareff something, but the Frenchman reached up to his own forehead, splitting his hair. The group all gasps.

“OH MY GOD!” Mr. Joestar yells.

“Shut up old man!” Jotaro retorts. Avdol trembles a little.

“A flesh bud scar… you never worked with Dio,” Avdol states, “You were forced to serve him!”

“I’m afraid so. My, uh, friend and I are on the run, we’re headed to the States.”

“I believe we’re going opposite of  each other. Our next stop is Singapore,” Avdol states.

“If you need assistance on leaving, we can help you,” Mr. Joestar offers.

“Thank you, but I must decline. I’ve wasted enough of your time already,” Polnareff says, looking away in guilt.

“There has to be something we can give you,” the old man tries to persuade Pol. Polnareff stops to think for a moment. The old man is wearing gloves, that’s strange.

“What’s under your left glove?” Polnareff asks.

“My glove?” Mr. Joestar asks. He slips off the glove to reveal a simple left hand. “See, nothing. Why do you ask?” Not him…it was worth a try.

“...have you heard of a man with two right hands?”

Chapter Text

‘Serves me right for jumping into a goddamn pile of rocks.’ Hol Horse slowly wobbles around the streets of Hong Kong, trying to soothe the pain from his shoulder and foot. Good news for him, Avdol and his scary group were not after him anymore. Bad news, he has no idea where Polnareff is and everything kinda hurts. 

“Polnareff!” Hol Horse calls for the umpteenth time. No dice. He’s been searching for over half an hour! That pompous Frenchman must be somewhere, he just needs to search harder. Not the first time he had to search for the wandering Frenchman.

“Oi, Polnareff!” Hol Horse yells again. Some people walking down the streets look at him as if he were crazy. He probably looks crazy but Hol Horse doesn’t care. He stops in his tracks and listens for any sign of the Frenchman. 

Nothing.

Just the wind, no boisterous Frenchman in sound or sight. Just the Hong Kong citizens happily walking by without a care for the stranded cowboy. Hol Horse laments. They should have stuck together. It’s just that Hol Horse didn’t expect the whole group to chase after Pol. The group was supposed to split up! That’s logical, right? 

Hol Horse turns a corner, away from the eyes of the public, walking down an empty road. He finds a bench, his tiredness begging him to have a sit down. Hol Horse plops himself on the wooden bench, head in hands.

“Shit,” Hol Horse murmurs.

“Language, monsieur Horse,” a voice chastises him. Hol Horse barely notices until he realizes the voice is familiar to him. Hol Horse snaps his head up.

“Polnareff ya coot, where have you been!” Hol Horse demands. “I’ve been looking for you everywhere!” 

“Some garden or something like that. You look terrible,” Polnareff states as he sits down on the bench. Hol Horse scoots over a little.

“Of course I do, I jumped into a big ol’ pile of rocks. You look as if someone stuck you onto one of them kebab sticks,” Hol Horse notes, looking up and down Polnareff’s structure. Parts of his skin looked a little raw and his clothing seemed charred. His hair could have seen better days. Polnareff absentmindedly tries to fix his flat top.

“I got into a fight with Avdol.”

“So you actually did fight him! Did ya leave ‘em running? Crying too? From the way you look, you must have!”

“Yeah?” Polnareff answers, sweating a little. 

“Hell yeah!” Hol Horse celebrates, clasping his hand on Polnareff’s back. Polnareff slightly dipped his head down.

“I’m sorry, I’m lying.”

“Lying?”

“I didn’t beat him. I was given an offer by the group.” Hol Horse stared at Polnareff, wondering what he meant. 

“What did they try to offer you?” Hol asks in curiosity.

“They asked me to join them,” Polnareff answers, slightly turning his head away. 

“Why! They were attacking you earlier, weren’t they?” the Texan exclaims, extending his arms outward.

“I know, I know! It’s just that they share our hatred for Dio. They’re the Joestars. T h e Joestars! Y’know, the ones that I was supposed to hunt down. They’re hunting down Dio! How can I turn this down?”

“It ain’t worth it. We don’t owe them anything and they don’t need us. The last thing I want us to do is go back to that filthy husk of a man,” Hol Horse tried to argue, getting ready to leave.

“I know about J Geil,” Polnareff quickly retorts. Hol Horse freezes. “Did you know that he works with Dio? Did you know that he was there, the whole time, at Dio’s mansion?” Hol Horse stayed silent. “Answer me goddammit, did you know he worked with Dio too?” Polnareff asked again. He took Hol’s hand, squeezing it with his two hands. Polnareff almost seemed to plead with his eyes.

“You don’t need to know. Lets just go hack to our hotel, alright pardner?” Hol Horse tried to change the conversation as he slowly moved his hand back. He doesn’t want to think about that creep. He wanted nothing to do with him. Why does Polnareff need to bring this up now of all times? They’re so close. Almost safe.

“So you do know about him!” Polnareff accuses.

“No, I didn’t say-alright, fine. What if I did know, there’s no reason to go back to Cairo for one dumb guy. Maybe we’ll find him some other time. We’ve got the money, we just need to go!”

“You don’t understand, Hol. I need to go after him. I can’t lose my chance again.”

“What are you going on about? Polnareff, you can’t go. What’s so important that you find the need to put yourself in danger?” 

“My sister! I’m doing it for her!” Polnareff yells as he jumps off the bench. Hol Horse feels a spike of guilt flow through him. He takes a swallow. He doesn’t like where this is going. “I've been on and still am on a mission. I can’t abandon it. I’m not leaving my little sister alone again. I’ve failed her and I’m not about to fail again. I was about to ask you to join me but it seems like you don’t trust me enough to tell me about J Geil.”

“Polnareff, it’s not like that. I trust you, I…I trust and value you! With that being said, you know what will happen to me if I reveal myself to the Joestars.”

“Well then, I don’t- I can go find that slimy bastard myself! I don’t need you!” Polnareff yells. Hol Horse felt something snap inside him, he felt his body start to boil. This doesn’t sit right with him.

“Fine, I don’t need you either!” Hol Horse yells back as he gets up from the bench and turns away from Polnareff. 

“Where are you going? I’m not done with you yet!” Pol asks, still sounding irritated. 

“You don’t need to know, you don’t even need me. From what I see, this conversation is done.” Hol Horse keeps walking away, hopefully to some nearby taxi cab. From the corner of his eye, Hol Horse barely sees Polnareff’s anger-filled face.

“Coward!” Polnareff yells. Hol watches Polnareff kick the ground and angrily walk off. Hol Horse doesn’t dare to look back, he walks off as well. He keeps walking away from Polnareff, he’s not in sight anymore. 

‘I…’ Hol Horse struggles to think. He keeps moving regardless. Other people around happily pass by, unaware about Hol’s problem. Hol Horse looks up at the sky, the sun still shines bright. Hol Horse looks behind him, nobody is there. No one to back him up anymore.

‘He doesn’t need me, I don’t need him.’

ིྀ 𓎟ᛝ𓎟𓎟　†　𓎟𓎟ᛝ𓎟 ྀི

Clouds blanket the sky, the weather could be better. Hol Horse sits at a bus stop, a few other people surrounding him, all with umbrellas in hand. His jacket hood is up, his face is hidden. No need for anyone to recognize him, no need for fights. Hol only needs a bus that takes him straight to the airport. 

“Did you hear about the fire at Tiger Balm Garden?” an English tourist asks their partner.

“Yeah, I really wanted to see the place. How did the fire start?” their partner responds. Hol Horse closes his eyes, listening to the chatter of people around him. He hopes Polnareff is happy with abandoning him. Hol Horse really wants a cigar, maybe it will make him just as happy as Polnareff. He tries to search his pocket for the cigarettes. They are not there. He searched his other pocket, it only had a hotel key. It’s strange to him that there are only keys. Where are all the other items then?

‘Wait, my wallet!’ Hol Horse thinks, realizing he doesn’t have his wallet. In fact, he doesn’t have any of his things. They must all be back at the hotel! How unfortunate for Hol Horse.

“S’cuse me, I’ve got somewhere to be!” Hol Horse shoves through the people waiting at the bus stop. It has already taken him an hour or two to find an available bus stop, he can’t miss out on the next arrival. 

Hol Horse runs down the crowded street hoping to find a taxi. Multiple shops and buildings pass by him, his jacket flowing as Hol runs. A taxi nears, Hol Horse makes a direct dash to it. He peaks at the driver’s window, no one is inside. 

“Darn,” Hol Horse says under his breath. Just as he’s about to go find another taxi to bug, Hol hears footsteps behind him. He turns around to find a man with keys in his hand, he looks to be the owner of the taxi.

“Sir, I need you to get me down this here road, ya hear?” Hol Horse asks. The man looked confused, Hol horse was speaking too fast. 

“Y’know what, I got no time for this. Gimme them keys!” Hol yells, shoving the man and taking his keys. He then dashes towards the car and forcefully opens the door. He jumps into the driver's seat, jamming the key into the ignition lock and turns it while stomping the clutch pedal. He switches gears and steps on the gas, speeding off with the squeak of the tires.

The street was a little busy with some cars in Hol Horse’s way, but he didn’t care. He swerved around the cars in his way, wanting to get back to the hotel. There probably was a more efficient, non-problematic way of getting back but who cares now, he needs to be somewhere right now. He keeps driving until he gets onto a familiar street, the inn isn’t too far from his spot. 

‘My stuff better be there!’ Hol Horse thinks as he drives up to the side of the hotel. He gets out and looks at the car. He most likely needs to make amends after…or steal the car. Y’know, he could have just taken a car to the airport-

‘I have no time!’ Hol Horse gets out of his thoughts and looks away from the car. His eyes settle on the inn right in front of him. He needs his stuff.

Hol Horse enters the hotel and dashes to the elevator to get to his floor, ignoring the front desk entirely. He hits the fourth floor button and the lift starts to move. 

‘Huh, usually these types of hotels don’t have fourth floors…’ Anxiously waiting for the fourth floor to arrive, Hol Horse crosses his arms and leans on the wall of the lift. He starts to think about things more than he’d like to.

‘Is Polnareff still hanging around here?’ Hol Horse starts to think, now realising Polnareff still might be at the hotel. But there’s no way that could be true, Polnareff had said he was leaving him behind.

‘Could he be here?’ Hol wanted to ponder a little more but the elevator stopped. The doors open to the hallway. No time for dilly dally, he needs to go. Hol Horse runs into the hallway.

‘408, 410, where is…ah! 414!’ Hol Horse exclaims in mind, fumbling with his keys. All he needs to do is take his stuff and leave, again. He unlocks the door and slowly opens it. 

Inside, he finds…nothing. 

Well, how anticlimactic. Hol Horse really expected something to happen. All he truly sees in the room are still the two unmade beds, other furniture, and his stuff on his bed. Hol carefully walks over to his once comfortable bed to grab his bag. His hand hovers above the bag, but a small draft enters the room. Hol Horse looks across the room. He sees-

‘No, there’s nothing there,’ Hol Horse reminds himself. He swings his backpack on. Hol Horse only needs to leave. The faster he leaves, the faster he can get back to his ‘normal’ life. Then the shiver comes back. It’s the small, cool draft again. Hol Horse can’t ignore it any longer. He looks across the room again. He sees parted curtains and the balcony door open. Someone is leaning on the railing. 

‘I just can’t leave, can I? No, I need to confront him. This is my only chance, I have one chance to get this right.’ Hol Horse swings off his backpack. He takes out his pack of cigarettes and a lighter before he goes out to the balcony. 

As Hol Horse steps out onto the balcony, faint sunlight showers him in its golden hues. In front of him was Polnareff. He seems to have showered recently. His hair was down again and he swapped his tube top out for a plain, black tank top. He’s resting on the railing, looking out to the view Hong Kong has to offer. His red, broken earrings still shimmered in the sun. They were beautiful.

Hol Horse tentatively walked a few steps forward. He had something in mind to say, possibly comforting words in mind. Those words though, they never got the chance to leave him.

“I know you’re behind me, Hol.” Hol Horse winces, Polnareff’s voice sounds raw, though, not out of anger. Pol doesn’t seem to be mad anymore, he just sounds dejected. The Texan takes a few more steps closer to Polnareff and the smooth railing. Polnareff doesn’t do anything to stop him. Hol Horse keeps taking steps forward until he reaches the railing and now looks out at the view with Polnareff. He gives Polnareff space, not wanting to upset him further. They both lean on the railing, listening to the city sounds below and hear the winds above. 

“...You came back,” Polnareff mutters.

“I did,” Hol Horse responds. He stays silent, looking outward at the view. This was his chance, he had to say something. Hol takes a deep breath. He turns to look at Polnareff. “Pardner, I-”

“No, stop,” Polnareff interrupts, stopping Hol Horse from continuing. Hol slumps a little, maybe it is too late to make amends. Polnareff turns to look at Hol Horse. “I’m sorry.”

“You’re what?” Hol Horse asks, actually surprised.

“I’m sorry. I had some time to think and…I realized you were trying to protect me in your own way. I paid you back by berating you.”

“Polnareff, I know you didn’t mean to yell at me. I have my own faults in this too.”

“I still called you a coward.”

“I know but…” Hol doesn’t know how to continue. They’re both tired, really tired. Hol Horse sighs, he still feels a little on edge. He takes out an oh-so desired cigar from his box and lights it. He takes a swing of his death stick and breathes out smoke. The smoke, oh how it soothes his nerves. The wispy smoke swirls in the air a little before being blown away by the breeze. Small droplets are carried along with the breeze. It has started to rain.

“Do you want one?” Hol Horse asks Polnareff as he pulls out another cigar. The Frenchman brought his hand back to himself, out and away from the cool rain. He looks at Hol Horse with hesitation before taking the cigar. Hol Horse takes his lighter out again and flips it open. The small spark of the flame makes Polnareff flinch which goes unnoticed by Hol. Just like Hol Horse, Polnareff takes a swing of the cigarette and lightly exhales the smoke.

“...I told myself I would stop smoking for my sister.” Polnareff’s eyes looked sad as they stared off into the distance. Hol Horse still wondered something.

“If you’re comfortable with it, where is she now?”

“...” Polnareff puts out his cigarette on the railing.

“No, forget it. I shouldn’t be invading your personal-”

“She’s dead,” Polnareff says, his voice sounding despaired. Hol Horse is stunned. There isn’t really anything he can do. He looks at Polnareff. The man looks tense, extremely tense. “Ma chérie, Sherry, I really miss her.” 

“...” Hol Horse couldn’t say anything, he knew he couldn’t do anything to bring someone back. Although, he knows how it feels to lose close ones. Loving parents. 

“That man-no, that monster J Geil, he…he killed her. I promised I would keep her safe. I wished for the best for her, but not even that did anything. I promised her that I would never leave her alone, that her big brother would always look out for her. Heh, some brother I am. Now she’s alone, shamed and alone all because her stupid brother-” Polnareff snapped out of his spiral, it looks like he felt something. 

Hol Horse had put a hand on Polnareff’s shoulder. 

All the tensed up pressure that Hol Horse felt from Polnareff died down. The man eased into the cowboy’s touch. Polnareff lets out a shallow sigh as he swings his arms over the balcony railing. They both stand in silence, the hand still resting comfortably on Polnareff’s shoulder. It was the only thing Hol Horse could do.

“I don’t know. I don’t know what to do. I thought the Joestars would help somehow, but I never took into consideration you. I hate it when stuff doesn’t make sense. I hate it.” Hol Horse tries to think. He feels the desperation emit from Polnareff, desperation that can’t be ignored. There has to be something Hol could do. No. There is something he can do. 

“Polnareff,” Hol Horse ends off with, waiting for a response.

“Hm?”

“If the Joestars are taking a ship to Singapore, we have a ship to catch. Don’t we?”

“You’re pulling my leg, aren’t you?”

“I’m being as real as my Emperor’s bullets.” Hol horse observes Polnareff’s face, looking for some sort of change from the Frenchman’s grim expression. Then it happened.

A small crack in the sadness.

A smile slowly crept up Polnareff’s face. Hol Horse could have sworn he saw something wet form near Polnareff’s eyes but he was suddenly ambushed by a side hug.

“You have no idea how much this means to me,” Polnareff says through his smile. Hol starts to smile a little. This feels nice.

Hol and Pol split from their small hug and face each other, both look happy. The rain still keeps falling, filling up the silence. It feels…peaceful.

“Polnareff, there is one condition though. If any of us gets injured badly, we need to turn back immediately, ya hear that?” Hol asks.

“Yeah, yeah. Speaking of, are you alright?” Pol questions, looking concerned. Hol Horse looks at his battered arms. Oh, yeah, rocks. He still looks bad. “Allow me to patch you up. It shouldn’t take too long.” Hol Horse guesses it shouldn’t be too bad to refresh before finding a boat to get on. 

Hol Horse and Polnareff enter their hotel room again. Hol Horse makes his way to the bathroom as soon as he sheds his jacket. He looks into the mirror, he looks disheveled. Hol Horse reaches up to his eyes and removes something. He splashes his face with water.

“You have blue eyes! I didn’t know you used contacts…do they feel weird?” Polnareff asks as he stands at the entrance of the bathroom. 

“Huh, oh yeah. I do have blue eyes. Also, the contacts don’t feel weird,” Hol Horse replies as he turns off the faucet and slowly takes off his open, white vest.

“Why do you hide them? The blue eyes, I mean.”

“That is for me to know and for you to find out.” He only got those just to look cool, y’know. Definitely not because some lady said he’d look hotter with brown contacts. Yeah, nothing like that at all. 

Polnareff enters the room, going over to Hol Horse who has now removed his white vest and along with his black canvas beneath it. Polnareff carefully tries to clean and wrap Hol’s torso with bandages and gauze. Hol twitches. 

“Are you sure it was a few small rocks? This doesn’t look like it was caused by just some dumb rocks.”

“I’m sure,” Hol Horse responds, knowing damn well that those so-called rocks looked a little more jagged than what he remembered. 

“Are you sure you want to come with me?” Polnareff asks as he bandages up Hol Horse.

“Yeah. What else can I do back at ‘home’ anyways?”

─── ☽ ───

Golden hued waters splash along a small boat. The sun ever so slowly dips under the water, a sign that the night is soon to follow. It’s thankfully not raining anymore, making way for clear skies. How nice. 

Hol Horse leans on the edge of the boat, observing the wonderful sunset. It’s been a few hours since he and Polnareff sneaked onto the final boat to Singapore. Sneaking onto vessels isn’t new to Hol Horse and surprisingly, it wasn’t a first for Polnareff either. It should not take long to reach the nearest port, but Hol needs to keep an eye out for the Joestars. He can’t go too ahead or fall too behind the Joestars. Maybe he should have thought this through a little more.

“Hey.” Oh, Polnareff was still here. He seems a little more happier than before.  He sets himself right next to Hol Horse. He also rests his arms on the edge, close to Hol’s arms. “Sorry for yelling at you.” Short and simple, nothing too complicated. Hol Horse looks around his surroundings a little. Noone’s watching them. 

“I apologize as well, pardner.” The two stay silent for a moment until Polnareff interrupts the silence.

“If it makes you feel a little better, I didn’t tell the Joestars anything about you…or Sherry,” Polnareff confessed.

“Why not about Sherry?”

“I wasn't ready to tell them yet.”

“Oh,” Hol mutters.

“Well, they don’t need to know. Besides that, we’re finally together again!” 

“Yeah!” Hol yells, pumping his fist. Polnareff looks back to enjoy the golden haze of the sunset. His red heart earrings glow under the light. Hol Horse continues to look out at the sunset and the gleaming ocean. He pulls down on the brim of his hat. It’s nice to have a pardner with him, he’s hopefully not alone anymore. 

“And Hol?” Polnareff says.

“Yeah?”

“Thank you.”

Chapter Text

Behind the safety of closed doors, static sounds out. Two men are sitting in front of a television, one of them wrapping the television up in a thorny, purple vine. Those men, Joseph and Avdol, are looking for something.

“Mr. Joestar, the channels are changing quite quickly,” Avdol notes, eyes slightly stinging from the constant flipping of television channels.

“Look Avdol! Hermit Purple is trying to form a sentence!” Joseph yells, drawing Avdol’s attention to the television. Joseph regains focus back onto the screen. It gives out more static but faintly, Joseph starts to hear something through the erratically changing channels.

“There is a…” the television starts off with, coughing up an amalgamation of spliced words. 

“There! Listen Avdol, listen!”

“...traitor among us…” the television continues.

“A traitor among us?” Joseph asks.

“I'm sure that’s what it said,” Avdol says, still eying the television with a watchful eye. 

“...Pol-nar-eff. Beware of him…” the television pieces together. Joseph and Avdol look worried. Didn’t they meet up with that guy before? “Dio’s spy,” the television finishes off with.

“Dio’s spy?” Joseph exclaims.

“That’s impossible, he can’t be Dio’s spy!” Avdol adds. The two men lean in even closer to the television as it starts to static again. A dark, menacing figure manifests onto the screen. The figure was shirtless, an almost pink star on their bare left shoulder. Joseph and Avdol, they know who it is.

“Joseph Joestar. You’re watching this, aren’t you?” the figure says, almost in a whisper-like tone.

“DIO! THEY FOUND US AVDOL. LOOK OUT!” Joseph yells, quickly putting himself between Avdol and the television. The television starts to sporadically shake. It explodes, sending the men across the room and hitting a nightstand behind them. Joseph lets out a pained grunt, causing Avdol to quickly turn to Joseph.

“M-Mr. Joestar! Are you okay?”

“I’m fine Avdol. Don’t worry about me.” Joseph slowly gets up and lends his hand to Avdol, pulling him up. His back hurts a little. Damn age.

“Mr. Joestar, this doesn’t make sense. Polnareff can’t be a spy for Dio! Not anymore at least.”

“Dio said it himself. Polnareff is still their servant. Dio could have eyes watching us, one of those eyes being Polnareff.”

“But what about Polnareff’s forehead? He was forced to work with Dio. Mr. Joestar, Dio could be lying!”

“Polnareff could be lying too, that hole could have been faked, we never really saw the bud. He never actually explained it either, did he?” Joseph takes a pause and realizes something. “He said he wasn’t coming with us.”

“Yes, but what about it Mr. Joestar?”

 “If he’s here, he’s lying about his allegiance!” Joseph argues. Avdol could only stay silent. For a stranger and a past enemy in his eyes, Polnareff seemed like a potential ally. He prays Polnareff isn’t following them, he prays he’s not wrong. It seems weird to care about a stranger that just met but he still cares. Regardless, Avdol can stew in thought. They need to push on. A wicked vampire still needs to be slain. 

:•.•:•:•:•:•☾☼☽•:•.•:•.•:•:•:

The sun is shining yet again and the morning is as bright as ever. Within a small coffee shop, Hol Horse sits alone at a table for two. In front of him are two of Polnareff’s maps, both marked up with pen or pencil. Ignore the drawings.

 Hol’s chewing a pencil in annoyance, squinting his eyes at the maps. Countries, cities, states, they all blend together in his mind.

‘I didn’t think this through, did I?’ Hol Horse laments. He doesn’t exactly know where the Joestars are going next, especially when the boat they took got destroyed. The only thing he remembers was tipping off the coast guard about the Joestar group getting stuck at sea and how they are now resting at an expensive hotel. Hol Horse groans as he looks at the maps again. He rubs his temples.

“Maybe we could…or maybe…” 

“Café!” someone exclaims. Hol Horse jumps a little, his trusty Emperor faintly being summoned. Hol looks behind himself, just to see Polnareff, innocently holding two piping hot coffees. Sweet, rich aroma from the coffees catch Hol Horse’s nose. Hol stares down one of the cups and snatches it, almost drinking it whole in one swing. Yeah, it was piping hot but Hol Horse really needed something in his system. “...I could have at least got a thank you,” Polnareff slowly says.

“Look Pol, I’m real tired. We could have slept at the good hotel before the Joestars came. Instead, we slept on that dang boat.”

“I don’t trust empty drinks left out of fridges. The last time I went to a hotel like that, y’know, before Cairo, some guy crawled out of the fridge! I woke up to the guy staring at me while I was laying down in bed!”

“That’s no excuse, you demanded this non-existent enemy to show themself and fight you. I had to drag you out the room!”

“That’s because there was a person! I swear there was! I’m not crazy!” Polnareff says, waving his hands like a crazy man.

‘There’s no way a whole person can fit in a cramped mini fridge! Unless…no, what in God’s name am I thinking!’ Hol Horse sighs and Polnareff takes a sip of his coffee. Hol sees Pol bounce his leg again.

“So, what’s the plan?” Polnareff asks as he takes a swing from his steaming drink. 

“In terms of a plan, we have no plan. We’re just waiting for the Joestars to do something I guess…”

“As if they’re doing anything, come on!” Polnareff joyously says as he drags Hol Horse out of his chair.

“Wait, wait!” Hol Horse hastily shoves the maps in his bag and almost drops his coffee. Polnareff doesn’t seem to want to wait any longer. 

Bursting out the cafe doors are Hol Horse and Polnareff, the former almost tripping and falling face flat on the ground. Some passerbyers look at the two oddly large men fumble out the cafe but mainly ignore them.

“Couldn’t you have been a little more gentle?” Hol Horse complains 

“Come on! I want to look around before we have to go,” Polnareff answers, completely ignoring Hol Horse’s complaining which may have been possibly justified. Hol dusts off his white canvas shawl, hoping no dirt got on the new garment. Actually, Singapore is pretty clean from what he’s heard. Looking around, barely any trash rests on the ground. Well, unless Pol’s bag counts as trash. Speaking of Polnareff, he is stretching and fixing his pink neck scarf which still rests on top of his black sleeveless shirt.

Birds chirp and whistle their wondrous songs, people seem to be all about the plaza outside, and it’s decently warm. A good day this is, isn’t it?

“Looks nice out here,” Hol comments with a whistle. Pol leans over to rest his elbow on Hol’s shoulder.

“Yeah and I like…do you hear that?” Hol Horse ponders about Polnareff’s sudden question but starts to hear an annoying whistle blowing. A man in a police uniform is running towards them. The two men straighten themselves upon seeing the policeman. “What does he want with us?”

“I don’t know, just stay quiet!” Hol Horse whispers before the policeman confronts them.

“Hey you!” the man yells, seeming frustrated.

“Me, sir?” Hol asks, pointing a finger towards himself. What did he do wrong?

“No, not you! I mean the other guy with the white hair, you!”

“Huh?” Polnareff grunts.

“You dumped this heap of trash, right? That’s a five hundred Singapore dollar fine!”

‘Yeesh, that’s like…a lot’ Hol Horse thinks, a little too stressed to work out the money amount. They worked this hard to get money, they can’t just lose it all to some bag of trash. Wait a second, that’s not trash. That’s just Polnareff's bag. That cop has doggone messed up. 

“What are you talking about? That’s my bag, all my luggage is inside. What must you be referring to as trash then? Couldn’t be me, no?” Polnareff asks as he places a hand on the officer’s shoulder. Hol Horse struggles to hold back a laugh. The officer looks funny in distress. Well that’s kinda rude but Hol Horse can’t help it.

“I-I’m terribly sorry,” the officer tries to muster up, pride obviously washed away and down the drain. Both Hol and Pol laugh up a storm, Hol swearing he possibly heard Polnareff snort. However, the two men faintly hear a third person laughing along with them. They turn to see a girl proudly laughing aloud. All is silent besides the laughing girl, whose laugh slowly died down.

“Shoo, go away, hmph!” Polnareff says as he shoos off the officer. “Alright, who are you?” Polnareff asks the little girl, pointing at her. 

“Anne! You got a problem with that?”

“No, it’s just that,” Hol Horse cuts himself off as he looks around. It looks like nobody's accompanying the girl. “What in tarnation is a little missy like you doing around these parts?”

“Little?” Anne asks as she pulls a pocket knife from her baggy overalls. “My knife is still thirsty for more blood and with that attitude, you two will be its next victims! I can take both of you on! Come on, come on!” Anne finishes, pointing her knife at Hol Horse. The Texan and the Frenchman look at each other and look back at Anne.

“...don’t you have places to be?” Polnareff asks inquisitively. Anne snaps out of her offensive stance and turns to answer Polnareff.

“Yeah, I’m going to join you! You two look tough. At least I think you’re tough.”

“W-wha? No! You’re just a little lady, you can’t join us!” Hol Horse exclaimed

“Little? I don’t have time to sit around, does it look like I’m getting any younger here? No? Then let me join!” Anne argued, waving her knife around.

“No”

“Please?”

“We don’t have time to stand around either, go back to your parents or something,” Hol Horse says as he waves off Anne. He leads himself and Polnareff away from Anne. All Hol hears after leaving is a small angered scoff and footsteps leading away from them. 

“Couldn’t we have done something?” Polnareff asks.

“No, it’s better not to bring anyone else with us. Plus, I already know someone just like her on this journey.”

“What do you mean? Who else is...wait.” Polnareff launches himself towards Hol Horse and scruffs up his hat. “You cowboy bastard!”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” Hol Horse laughs as he tries to escape Polnareff’s grip. It’s not the worst thing Hol Horse has said but it's still funny Polnareff reacted. Polnareff pushes Hol Horse away and Hol fixes his hat. 

“Can we do something else besides fight me?” Hol Horse asks. “You wanted to do something, yeah?”

“Hmm…” Polnareff surveys the plaza. “Get me a drink!”

“A drink? Now?”

“Not alcoholic you dummy [but that would be nice], I mean a drink there!” Polnareff says as he points to a small coconut drink stand.

“But we already had coffee!”

“And?...” Polnareff asks. 

‘Good point.’ Yep, more drinks for Hol Horse and Polnareff. Why not, they deserve everything with what they’ve gone through!

“Hey! Can we get two drinks right here!” Hol yells at the stand vendor as he takes out his wallet. The vendor watches the two men walk up to the stand. He seems to look at the two bizarrely dressed men with a deadpan face. Hol and Pol decide to ignore the obviously targeted face.

 Drinks are made and are instantly paid for, they smell sweet. Hol Horse is not one for sugar and sweets but this is an exception, an exception for Polnareff. 

“Hol Horse? Hol! What are you thinking about?” Polnareff asks.

“Huh?” Hol Horse mutters, realizing he’s just spaced off for a bit.

“You’re hogging both the drinks!”

“Oh,” Hol Horse mutters. He hands over one of his drinks to the impatient Polnareff. The Frenchman grabs ahold of his drink and takes a sip. 

“Hey, this ain’t half bad!” exclaimed Polnareff, drinking even more just as a bee would do to nectar. Well, Hol Horse has to take Pol’s word. The Texan brings the drink closer to his parched lips. He was about to drink what was supposedly a sweet elixir. Then, he felt a shove. He dropped his coconut drink. How saddening. 

“Hey! Now what in-” Hol starts to get dragged away by a silver figure? “Chariot? Let go!” Hol Horse looks at Polnareff for answers to Chariots behavior. Instead he sees Polnareff hold a finger in front of his face, telling Hol to shush. 

Hol Horse quickly gets dragged off and is hidden behind a conveniently shaped and placed hiding spot. 

Chariot instantly dissipates upon completing his mission, leaving Hol Horse with no choice but to watch Polnareff out in the open plaza. Polnareff looks worried. 

‘Polnareff, what has gotten into you?...” the cowboy wonders. He watches the Frenchman quickly adjust and fix his clothing. He looks like he’s getting ready to meet someone, but who?

“Polnareff!” a voice yells. Hol horse recognizes that voice.

‘It’s the Joestar guy!’ Hol panicky thinks. At least he’s hidden.

“Mr. Joestar, fancy seeing you guys here!” Polnareff says, joy masking his nerves. He waves at the old man. Hol Horse sees a teen in almost all black clothing accompany Mr. Joestar, he doesn’t look too happy. The two still keep running towards Polnareff. The Frenchman steps back a little, something doesn’t seem right.

“Mes amis! Nice to see you guys!”

“ORA!” a purple spirit standing close to the teen yells. Polnareff quickly tries to side step but his right arm is hit. Hol Horse hears an audible hiss escape Polnareff.

“Merde!” Polnareff hisses as Chariot manifests, their rapier pointed towards the two men. The darkly dressed teen huffs. He doesn’t say anything.

“Don’t act confused! We know it’s still you Polnareff!” Mr. Joestar accuses.

“What?” Pol queries. He hasn’t even done anything. Actually, he hasn’t even seen them face to face yet. Hol Horse, still listening in, doesn’t even know what the old man was even prattling about.

“You lied, you’re still working Dio!”

“What? No! I-” Polnareff tried to defend himself but got cut off by Mr. Joestar.

“You attacked Jotaro, my own grandson!” Hol Horse looked at the supposed Jotaro guy. His clothes seemed roughed up. But how? Polnareff was with him the whole time!

“I didn’t even do anything!” Polnareff argues, nursing his injured arm. Chariot protectively stands in front of Polnareff. Despite not really having a expressional face, the Chariot seemed really upset. They were ready to defend their user, being the brave knight they are. 

Hol Horse wants to jump in but there is no way he’s going up against that purple guy floating near Jotaro. Hol Horse surveys his surroundings, trying to see if he can do something.

Rustle

Hol hears something, it’s movement. Hol Horse carefully peeks out of the bushes he’s behind and looks around. The rustling came from his left, near a building far from him. He looks to his left and from the side of the building, he sees…

‘Polnareff!’

Chapter Text

It’s impossible. Nobody can ever be in more than one place at once! It has to be impossible, but Hol Horse can’t deny what’s laid before him. Through his eyes to the front, he sees Polnareff in the open plaza, still in a standoff against the Joestars. To Hol’s left however, he sees a supposed Doppelganger of Polnareff. The double looks a little…odd. 

Their hair is in a column shape, similar to what Polnareff had styled his hair to look like back in Hong Kong, but the Polnareff with the Joestars has his hair down. The Doppelganger had the same tube top Polnareff wore in Hong Kong, but yet again, this did not exactly match Polnareff’s current outfit, being his black, sleeveless shirt.
‘They’re both almost identical…’ Hol Horse thinks as he looks away from the Doppelganger. He turns back to observe the Joestars and Polnareff. They only seem to be arguing but anything could happen. Every precious second Hol Horse spends pondering is a precious second wasted.

Rustle

Sudden movement, something is happening. Hol Horse snaps his head back to see the pseudo Polnareff try to sneak away. Whoever the Doppelganger was, they were only there to stir up trouble and leave it to burn.

‘You’re not getting away!’ Hol Horse angrily thinks. He creeps out of his convenient hiding spot and pursues the runaway doppelganger, even with the bad foot of his. That fire shot to the foot still has its repercussions. 

While in chase, the ol’ reliable Emperor manifests, ready at his user’s will. Hol Horse follows the doppelganger around the building they snuck behind. Holding up the Emperor and with steady aim, Hol Horse fires.

BANG

The bullet strikes near the Doppelganger’s foot, getting the attention of the pseudo Polnareff. Their hands hover and shake.

“Now don’t be too hasty, stranger.” The Doppelganger freezes, slowly raising both their hands in the air. The Doppelganger hesitantly turns around to face Hol Horse, who still had his trustworthy gun trained on them. 

The Doppelganger fully turned around to face Hol. At first, Hol Horse saw a frustrated expression from the Doppelganger. Then, that frustration twisted into a smile. A smile too big for Hol Horse to be comfortable with, if he even was comfortable in the first place.

“I just realized, you haven’t seen my true form, have you?” the Pseudo Polnareff cackled, twitching slightly at the fingers. 

“If you don’t explain yourself now, you’re as good as dead meat,” Hol Horse warns, not wanting to waste anymore time. Hol Horse keeps hearing unsavory words be thrown about. The argument between Polnareff and Joestars is getting worse.

“I’m surprised you don’t remember someone as great and handsome as me!” the Doppelganger yells in gusto before seemingly starting to melt into yellow goo. Hol Horse slightly backs away as he basically watches his pardner melt in front of him. He still keeps his gun trained on the Doppelganger. 

“This is my true form!” the Doppelganger announces, no longer taking the form of Polnareff. He now instead takes the form of a buffed man with slick, black hair. He has no shirt at all, showing the world his glorious muscles. At least he had his pants on. 

“...Who are you again? I mean, at least a name would help, stranger.” Hol Horse asks, slightly lowering the Emperor down in confusion. The stranger stands in some sort of shock in response.

“You haven’t heard of anyone named Rubber Soul at all? The strong and glorious Rubber Soul!” the ever so great Rubber Soul yells. Hol Horse dwells on the response for a little.

“Nope, never heard of ‘em,” Hol flatley replies, just ready to be done with this Rubber Soul stranger. He’s heard of other people at Dio’s mansion, but he doesn’t even recognize this man.

“Nothing? Not at all? Well, you’re looking at him right now! In fact, I know you, Hol Horse,” Rubber replies. Hol Horse immediately put his gun back up. “Oh, let me guess. Weren’t you DIO’s hitman? Hm?” Rubber Soul asks, most likely already knowing the answer.

“I have nothin’ to do with ‘em,” Hol Horse uncomfortably retorts. 

“Hol Horse, think about it! You’re DIO’s hitman for a reason, join me.” Hol Horse cringes, he’s not with that damned monster anymore. “DIO’s paying me big time if those idiots over there kill each other. Wouldn’t you want that too, the money?” Rubber asks with a grin. Hol Horse knows the answer to that question.

“No, not anymore,” Hol Horse answers, keeping his gun steadily trained on Rubber Soul, who is starting to look a little annoyed.

“Really? You would really decide to decline a ludicrous offer such as this-” Rubber soul got cut off. Hol Horse hears commotion behind him.

“ORA, ORA, ORA!” a voice yells.

“HORA, HORA, HORA!” another voice cries. Hol Horse snaps his head to find the Jotaro guy and Polnareff dueling each other out. Hol Horse’s eye catches the beautiful gleam of the wonderous Silver Chariot flying through the air with his rapier. The Chariot, they try to block off the attacks of Jotaro’s stand. The purple spirit and Chariot are too fast for Hol Horse to make sense of. All Hol knows is that Polnareff is in danger. 

“I don’t need yer allyship, look at what ya done!” Hol Horse exclaims in a panic, voice trembling.

“Boo hoo, too bad. I have a job to do, unlike you. By any chance, have you seen a kid with red hair?” Rubber Soul asks. Hol Horse tries to compose himself. 

“You're not going anywhere. Your disguises aren’t even that good!” Hol Horse says, fully knowing he lied about the latter.

“Yellow Temperance, it always does an amazing job every time.”

“Then explain that,” Hol Horse states as he points at Polnareff. Rubber Soul watches the small glimpse of Polnareff he could catch in battle. 

“Maybe you’re right, I was a little off,” Rubber Soul says. Suddenly, yellow goo envelops Rubber Soul. The yellow goo takes its form and slowly reshapes Rubber Soul. Something else, or better, someone familiar, stood in front of Hol Horse. 

“Is this better?” Rubber Soul asks, now taking the form of a more accurate, current version of Polnareff. The red earrings, pink neck scarf, long silky hair, everything was perfect. Even down to his lightly dotted freckles. Polnareff and Rubber Soul, they now look indistinguishable. 

Hol Horse’s hand wavers, not sure if he can keep his gun pointed at the Pseudo Polnareff in front of him. Rubber Soul looks too much like Polnareff, Hol Horse doesn’t like this one bit.

“...” Hol Horse remains silent. 

“What? You don’t like this perfect form? What is it then? Are you scared-”

BANG, BANG, BANG!

A few bullets whiz through the air. Yellow Temperance falls slightly apart to let the bullets pass by, protecting its user. While taunting Hol Horse, Rubber Soul runs towards a section of the plaza with buildings on both sides. Hol Horse pursues him, trying to hunt him down with the Emperor.

A ladder is protruding from a market building, Rubber Soul is quick to climb it. Hol stops at the base building and tries to aim up Rubber. Yellow tendrils come out from behind Rubber to stop the bullets again, but it also stopped something else.

A precious, little, white bird flew into one of the yellow tendrils. 

The sweet, little bird struggled in the gooey tendril, attempting to fly towards freedom. Instead, Yellow Temperance enveloped one of the bird’s wings and clipped its wing feathers, carelessly dropping the bird on the ground. Hol Horse hid the Emperor and ran up to the meek bird, wanting to help the poor thing. However, Hol Horse halted. He saw something on the bird. Yellow goo, just like glue, stuck to the bird.

‘Something ain’t right here,’ Hol Horse thinks. He’s not touching that bird, instead glancing up at Rubber to give him a big ol’ mean look. Rubber Soul stares down in amusement. 

“You’ve figured that out quicker than I thought…yep! If my Yellow Temperance grabs a hold of you, that’s a sticky situation you’re never getting out of!” Rubber Soul laughs. Hol Horse sadly has to ignore the bird, wishing the little guy will be okay. Hol Horse could run away but something as precious as this bird being harmed, cannot slide, no siree. 

Hol Horse rapidly climbs the ladder before him, scaring Rubber and making him climb faster up. Rubber Soul tries to send yellow tendrils to grab ahold of Hol Horse, but they were all too slow.

“Get back here!” Hol Horse yells, prompting Rubber Soul to climb even faster. Both men make it onto the stop of the building. Rubber Soul runs atop the roof, reaching the end of the building and jumping onto another building top. Hol Horse follows, trying to keep his aim steady on the mischievous man in front of him.

CRASH!

As Hol Horse landed on top of the next building, he saw that the Joestars and Polnareff were in the same area but on the ground. Polnareff was thrown into a wall. 

‘You pompous Frenchman, get the hell up!’ Hol Horse begs, his mind being the only witness to hear his pleas. Polnareff twitches. He jumps back up, using Chariot’s rapier to steady himself, ready to get back into battle. Hol Horse doesn’t have much time. 

Hol Horse turns around to follow Rubber Soul again, only to find Rubber Soul looking back at him. Rubber Soul did not keep running, he only stopped to hide behind Hol Horse to spook him. 

With an open window of opportunity, Rubber Soul kicks and trips Hol Horse, leaving Hol to fall flat on his back. Hol Horse tries to push himself up but a foot steps onto his stomach. Looking up, he sees a gooey, yellow fist quickly come down onto him. He closes his eyes, awaiting impact. 

“Take this you jerk!” an angry voice yells, Rubber Soul letting out a yelp right after. Hol Horse opens his eyes. He sees Rubber Soul churn in pain while trying to cover a minuscule wound near his hip. Not wanting to waste a perfect opportunity for retaliation, Hol Horse kicks Rubber Soul away and near the edge of the building roof. Rubber Soul trips over the edge and falls off the building, landing right in front of the Joestars and Polnareff. Hol Horse takes a moment to breathe and looks to see who saved him. A small figure kneeled next to him.

It was Anne. 

“W-what are you doing here!” Hol Horse demands as he sits up. 

“Why was your friend attacking you?” Anne asks, entirely ignoring Hol’s question. 

“I’m telling ya right now missy, that ain’t him.” Commotion sounds out from below the building. Anne and Hol Horse near the edge of the roof and look down. The fight between Polnareff and the Joestars ceases for the moment. 

“Jotaro, wait! Are you seeing what I’m seeing?” Mr. Joestar asks. Jotaro only responds in a small grunt. Polnareff holds onto his hurt arm, he turns to see what the Joestars were looking at.

Polnareff sees himself. At least, he thinks that. Hol Horse watches in despair, knowing the truth behind the Doppelganger Polnareff. 

“...You’re not me. You can’t be me! You’re the damn reason I’m fighting in the first place aren't you!” Polnareff snapped. Rubber Soul, probably regretting his choice to disguise as Polnareff, gets up nervously. 

“Wait, no, I can perfectly explain everything!” Yeah, no, Rubber Soul was not getting out of this unscathed. Polnareff just ignored any and all pain in his body at this very moment, focusing all his energy to go over and strangle his duplicate. 

Hol Horse watches from above as he sees Rubber Soul and Polnareff petty fight. This is bad, really bad. Both are moving too fast for Hol Horse to keep track of. He readies his Emperor, hoping he has an opening to shoot Rubber Soul, if he can even tell the two apart. 

THUMP

All commotion stops, Polnareff and Rubber Soul stop fighting. Hol Horse watches Jotaro’s stand disappear after having punched the ground for attention. Jotaro eyes down both Polnareffs, knowing that one of them has to be fake. 

“...show us your stands,” Jotaro asks. Both Polnareff and Rubber Soul look at each other before looking back at Jotaro, both really don’t feel like going up against Jotaro’s stand. Two Silver Chariots are manifested soon after.

“Jotaro, they both have the same stand.”

“Really?” Jotaro sarcastically replies. Mr. Joestar doesn’t seem to be bothered by his grandson’s reply.

“Better question! What is your favorite color?” Mr. Joestar asks, a barely audible sigh from Jotaro following. 

“Red,” the Polnareff on the right replies, sweating.

“Orange, no, yellow, no, gold !” the Polnareff on the left spits out in a panic, immediately slapping his own hand onto his forehead in embarrassment. 

“They’re not going to get anywhere with this!” Anne whispers to Hol Horse. 

“I know, give me a second to think!” Hol Horse replies. He looks down at Rubber Soul and Polnareff. They both look the exact same. He wavers while pointing with the Emperor, switching from person to person. He doesn’t know who to shoot. 

“Well, you have to know I’m the real deal!” the Polnareff on the right exclaims, waving both his arms about. The Polnareff on the left, still nursing his arm, scoffs at the one on the right.

That’s all Hol Horse needs. The Polnareff on the left did not need to say anything at all, the movements of the one on the right was all he needed. With the Polnareff closer to Hol Horse, he has a clear shot from his position on top of the roof. He takes aim and shoots. 

BANG!

Everyone down below from Hol Horse’s and Anne’s position turn to look at the source of the noise. The Polnareff on the right, he stares at the incoming bullet, eyes wide and petrified. In an instant, yellow tendrils erupt from behind the Polnareff to stop the bullet from hitting him. Yellow Temperance, it catches the bullet.

The right Polnareff, or more accurate, Rubber Soul, pants heavily. The yellow tendrils drop the bullet.

“Mr. Horse? Or something like that, you didn’t even hit him! You missed,” Anne whispers.

“I don’t miss. I wasn’t aiming to kill him anyways. Pipe down and watch,” Hol Horse says as he points at Rubber Soul and the others. Rubber Soul slowly turns toward Polnareff and the Joestars, smiling nervously. 

“Now look, this is all a big misunderstanding!” Rubber Soul tries to plead. Jotaro walks towards Rubber Soul, looking down upon him menacingly. 

“...” Jotaro only glares, a silent warning of somesort. He turns around to walk away. However, instead of accepting mercy, Rubber Soul sends Yellow Temperance to wrap its tendrils around the teen. But, the tendrils get cut by a certain silver knight, only visible for a few seconds. Jotaro turns back around and his stand comes out, punching Rubber Soul.

“ORA!” the purple stand yells. Polnareff backs away from the new fight in front of him and looks around. He looks up and sees two figures on top of a building. Hol Horse’s and Polnareff’s eyes connect. Hol Horse points towards the back of the building, Polnareff nodding and running towards the location. 

“Anne, keep up with me!” The cowboy and Anne climb down the building they’re on and start towards the back. A familiar figure runs up, joining up with the pair.

“Polnareff!” Hol Horse exclaims, running up to check on his pardner. His arm looks a little bruised but hopefully nothing is too bad. “Are you okay?”

“I’ll be fine…oh! Anne, you’re back!” Polnareff happily says.

“Unfortunately,” Hol Horse continues, leaving Anne to give him a nasty look. Commotion sounds off and the party of three hiding behind the building peek out from the side to see what’s happening.

“Yare yare daze…” Jotoro sighs, walking away with his grandfather. A beaten up Rubber Soul is left in the aftermath. A certain girl has her face light up in a smile.

“Look, it’s Jotaro!” Anne exclaims in joy. Almost as quick as Chariot, both men snap their heads towards Anne.

“Kid, you know them Joestars?” Hol Horse asks, bewildered. 

“Yeah! See you guys!” Anne shrugs and is about to probably annoy Jotaro again.

“Wait, don’t tell 'em’ we’re here,” Hol whispers, almost pleading.  Anne looks at the two men, then she looks back at the Joestars, then back at Hol and Pol.

“...Okay!” Anne answers with a smile. Both Hol Horse and Polnareff let out a tiny sigh of relief. She merrily hurries off to join the Joestars. Both Hol and Pol smile at each other, happy this fight is all over. Then, they both hear a pained gasp. Both men look back at the aftermath of the fight and see the struggling Rubber Soul. Hol Horse pauses in place for a moment. He breathes out his nose. 

Hesitantly, he trudges towards Rubber Soul, tugging Polnareff along. Hol looms above Rubber Soul, the latter closing his eyes in fear upon seeing Hol. Rubber Soul expected another beating, he did screw over both men anyways. But instead, Rubber Soul felt something soft wrap around his beaten and raw torso. They were bandages. Opening his eyes, Rubber Soul sees Hol Horse bandage him up. 

“...” Rubber Soul rapidly opens and closes his mouth as if he were a fish out of water. He can’t find anything to say. A bird chirps, the meek white bird from earlier, the one with its clipped wing, flies off and away. Hol Horse observes it slightly and turns to focus on Rubber.

“Bring up nothing of this, ya hear? I’m not forgiving you, not by a long shot. But, I’m not leaving you to suffer, not like this. I’m not with Dio anymore. Heck, for all I know, they can kiss my ass! I suggest you leave while you can,” Hol Horse warns. He finishes his bandaging work. “Come on Polnareff.” 

“Hm,” Polnareff hums, his gaze lasting a little on Rubber Soul before turning off to walk away with Hol Horse. Rubber Soul, he lets his hand hover over his waist. He carefully gets up and looks at the duo. Rubber Soul runs away. 

· ─────── ·𖥸· ────── ·  

Busy and noisy, that’s what goes through Hol Horse’s mind. People are quickly boarding and departing a train that has a long journey ahead of it. He and Polnareff found out that the Joestars are taking this very train to Calcutta, they need to follow them. Being as discreet as possible, Hol Horse and Polnareff sneak up onto the back of the train, bags in hand.  

“Nobody should find us here. From my experience, nobody ever checks the back,” Polnareff whispers.

“Hope so,” Hol Horse wishes. 

“Hello!” Both men freeze and whip their heads down at the ground, searching for the origin of the definitely mysterious voice. Any built up fear instantaneously gets released, replaced with a groan from Hol Horse.

“Anne! You dang nearly stopped my heart! What are you doing here!” Hol whisper-yells. Anne slightly lowers her head.

“I have something to confess actually. My parents are the next town over…can you help me up?” Polnareff looks at Hol Horse with a pleading face. Hol Horse holds a stern face, or at least he tries to. “I mean, I can tell Mr. Joestar you’re here and-”

“Okay, okay! Fine, I’m already convinced. Polnareff, give me a hand.” Both men pull up Anne onto the train. She quickly thanks the two and runs into the train cabin. Hol Horse tiredly leaned on the train’s back guardrail. “Do we look like damn babysitters?”

“It can’t be too bad, Hol. It’s only for a little while.” Slight rumbling sensations course through the train, it’s starting to move. “Let’s just head inside, we’ll talk more then, oui?”

“...alrighty then, pardner.” Hol Horse takes a little longer to take in the view of the train station and its busy people. He finally turns and enters the train cabin with Polnareff.

◃───────────▹

Patience, he’s quiet and he needs to be patient. Devo doesn’t know how long he’s been cramped up inside the hotel’s mini fridge but someone, preferably a member with the Joestars, has to enter at some point. Patience, patience is virtue and he needs to wait. 

Click

Someone opened the door, it has to be someone. Devo knows someone is inside, someone is indefinitely inside. He’s patient and still quiet, it’s not time yet to strike. Footsteps sound in the hotel bedroom, those footsteps have to cease at some point. The footsteps, the footsteps! They get closer, and closer until…

“Devo, you can come out.” Those footsteps, they were no intruder, definitely not a friend or anyone related to the Joestars. It was Rubber Soul. Devo slowly crawls out the fridge and reveals himself in front of Rubber Soul. His joints feel a little stiff but nothing too bad hurts. “...How long have you been in there?” Rubber Soul asks. Devo only shrugs, feeling a little annoyed at the fact he had spent probably way too long in that fridge. Rubber Soul tries to wobble towards Devo but trips. Devo swiftly catches him.

“...What did they do to you Rubber?”

“Everything, everything terrible! Look at what they've done to my body, my physique, my everything!”

“Hm,” Devo shakes his head. He inspects Rubber Soul, he finds bandages around his battered torso. He rubs the bandages.

“These? You remember Dio’s hitman and that French guy? They did this. Look, I don’t know about Dio anymore, especially after what the hitman guy said. I think Dio’s wasting our time at this point.”

“I could kill four people faster myself than following Dio’s plan,” Devo mutters. 

“You know what Devo? I think we should quit! I mean, have they even paid you?” Devo shakes his head no. “Exactly, we’re leaving!” Rubber Soul concludes. Devo looks over Rubber Soul and the whole hotel room.

‘...We quit.’

Chapter Text

The Golden sunset and the soon dark night slowly arrive. The setting sun carries light alike to the color of honey and the night having glowing stars painted in its sky. Little critters and insects come out, safe under the blanket of the arriving darkness. Crickets chirp and prance around grass and meadows. 

Not too far from a barnhouse, a blanket is spread out on the dried grass. A small boy, Holister, is sprawled out on the fluffy blanket. Sunsets are his favorite. It’s relaxing and enjoyable to lay beneath a sunset. It’s not too hot, nor too cold yet. 

Outside is the best place to stay, especially when his parents were doing boring work inside. It’s also nice to see little bugs jump around too. Animals were a favorite to the little cowboy.

Still laying on his stomach, Holister reaches his hands out and cusps a little creature. As he gently uncovers his hands, a little cricket is found. 

‘Cool.’ Holister allows the little cricket to walk about his hands until it inevitably jumps away. The little boy lets out a yawn. Sunsets make him sleepy too. Holister rests his sleepy head onto the fluffy blanket, snuggling into it. He pulls down his oversized cowboy hat on his head, covering his eyes. It’s his favorite hat, it’s his father’s old hat. He could never leave without it.

Slowly but surely, the little cowboy drifts off to the land of dreams. Not a care in the world, comfortable on his blanket. The next time the boy woke up, he was back inside the barnhouse in his room, tucked into his warm bed. 

˖  ݁𖥔.☁︎.𖥔 ݁ ˖

The train ever-so slightly shakes and continues onward in the setting sun, bright with reds and oranges. A little girl, Anne,  lightly snores, lying down on some stuffed bags on the train seats. A light, yet soft blanket was draped over her, courtesy of Polnareff. A certain cowboy refuses to say he had any involvement in tucking the little miss in. Nothing at all seems to bother Anne, no cares in the world. Only silently snoozing.

Hol Horse, he has himself backed up into the far corner of the train cabin. With the brim of his hat pulled down, he tries to get some well needed rest. Though, a certain Frenchman would not let him, not anytime soon. 

“Hol Horse?...Hol?” Polnareff bugs. Hol Horse begrudgingly lifts his hit, seeing Polnareff proudly standing in front of him. 

“Yup?”

“Do you have a second…or two?” Polnareff asks. Hol nods, fixing his hat and getting up. Pol trots over back to an open spot in the cabin, opposite from Anne. He pats a seat right next to him with a smile. Hol Horse takes a seat.

Right above the seats lies a window. Outside, in its full golden display, is a burning sunset. Hol Horse has already seen multiple sunsets before, heck, he’s seen one while on the boat heading to Singapore. This one though, it reminds Hol Horse of something that feels distant. He can’t put his finger on it but it feels familiar. 

Hol Horse turns to look at Anne. He knows he shouldn’t get too attached, they’re only watching her for the moment. She is still asleep, probably off in dreamland. Her chest slowly rising and falling, she’s alright. 

“Hol? What are you smiling about?” Hol Horse jumps at the sudden intrusion of Polnareff’s voice. Hol Horse looks away.

“Nothin’,” Hol Horse mutters.

“Alright…softie.” Softie? Softie! Whatever. Both the two men go back to gazing at the sunset. It’s pretty nice. Way better viewing it on safe land than from a boat on water…or on a plane in the air. 

“...Hol Horse?”

“Yeah, pardner?”

“I don’t think I’ve given you my name, I mean my full name.” Well, it is a little strange that both men don’t exactly know each other’s names after a full month. Nothing too bad with sharing names. 

“Well, lemme restart then. Howdy stranger, who must you be?” Hol Horse asks as he stretches his hand out. Polnareff smiles.

“I am Jean-Pierre Polnareff!” Polnareff answers, shaking Hol’s hand. “And who must you be?” Hol Horse lingers for a moment. He’s kept his name hidden for what he believes to be secrecy reasons. He’s never really shared his name with anyone…even lovers.

Hol Horse looks at Jean’s bright but relaxed face. If there’s anyone he could trust, it would be his pal, Pol. 

“I’m Holister Horse.” Hol Horse tensed a little, his hand subconsciously gripping Polnareff’s hand a little tighter. Pol doesn’t seem to mind though.

“Holister…Holister…Holister?” Polnareff repeated multiple times. “...I got it! I’ll just call you Holi!”

“H-Holly?

“No, it’s spelled H O L I. It’s your name, but shortened!” Pol teased. Well, not what Hol Horse expected.

“What? No, you can’t just-” but then Hol Horse remembers that Polnareff doesn’t care and does what Polnareff wants. “-nevermind.” Hol Horse slumps down in his seat and rests his head on the very edge of the window, gaze focused back on the sunset. He starts to feel a little odd. He lets out a yawn.

“Doesn’t it look beautiful?” Jean asks. Holister only hummed in response. He could have sworn Polnareff inched a little closer to him. Hol blinks, then he blinks again, with it lasting longer than the last. “Are you okay?” asks a little worried.

“Yeah, just…give me a bit.” Hol Horse blinks again, slipping further and further into what he could assume to be sleep. The last thing Hol Horse sees is the sweet smile of Polnareff.

“Rest well.”