House of Cards
Disclaimer: I don't know Huntik:Secrets and Seeker nor the Characters. However, I do own the plot and my OC's.
Summary: The Huntik team is forced to face great hardships after they successfully defeated the betrayer. When a new enemy appears with powers far stronger than the betrayers,however, the Huntik Team is forced to face great obstacles in order to ensure the worlds safety.
A/N: Hey guys! Some of you may remember me as I have been in the Huntik fandom before already. I decided to start writing again and sincerely hope that you all are going to enjoy the first chapter! Please tell me if you liked it by leaving a review! Enjoy:)
Chapter1: Change
To say that Zhalia was growing impatient would be an understatement.
The bluenette tapped her feet impatiently on the ground and checked her wrist-watch for what felt like the hundredth time in the past ten minutes, annoyance clearly visible in her hazel eyes.
Lok and Sophie were supposed to meet up with her half an hour ago already, but there still was no sign of them.
Zhalia had already toyed with the idea of simply walking into the building located mere inches away from her and dragging them out by herself, but she didn't want to attract more attention than was necessary.
It was bad enough that most people have already exited the building and thrown her curious glances. She was a spy for goodness sake, she wasn't supposed to attract any attention at all nor did she like doing so.
Then again, it was also possible that something happened. Zhalia didn't entirely dismiss the thought that some of the left-over Spirals could have attacked them, but they would have already found a way to inform them or at least send Cherit to ask for back-up.
"Zhalia!" Came a sudden shout, ripping her out of her musings. Zhalia immediately recognized the voice and upon hearing the familiar sound of footsteps approaching from behind, she couldn't suppress the sigh that had left her lips.
She looked to her right and saw Dan approaching her with rather hurried steps, a small smile on his lips.
It took another moment until he finally reached her, his gaze now fixed onto the school-building in front of them as well.
"Still in there, huh?" He bluntly guessed, earning a nod from Zhalia in return.
"Why did you come?" Zhalia questioned as she crossed her arms, her eyes still steadily fixed onto the school's entrance.
Dan tucked his hands into the pockets of his jacket before he spoke up. "Dante send me to check on you since you guys were taking so long."He shrugged, eyeing her out of the corner of his eyes.
Zhalia couldn't help but rise her brow at the words she was hearing from the brunette seeker next to her. She knew that Dante was only worried about his teams well-being and kind of predicted that he would do something like this, but she couldn't help but feel slightly frustrated.
He should know best that she was able to deal with difficult situations just fine and that there was no need to send back-up unless things were looking really bad. And if it was the case, she would have informed him already as well. Still, no matter how many times she would tell him that she would be fine on her own, he didn't seem to listen.
Dante had always liked to play by his own rules in order to make sure that everything was as it should be.
It's been around two months since the fight against the Betrayer and the foundations victory, and things didn't change as much as one would think they did.
Many of the blood spirals have either died in the battle or have escaped before the Foundation was able to capture them. Fortunately, the foundation acted quick and managed to find some of them shortly after and interrogated them to gain more information about the Spiral.
The betrayer may be gone, but that didn't mean that it would keep the former members of the Blood Spiral from causing any more trouble.
In fact, there were still reports from various seekers all around the world that said that there was an incident involving former Spiral members.
Metz, Guggenheim and the rest of the council that now included none other than Dante Vale himself were busy trying to think of a solution, which sounded much more easier than it was.
Thanks to the damage the Organization followed by the Blood Spiral caused, many seekers have gotten injured and many valuable documents have either disappeared or gotten destroyed.
Years work thrown to waste, just like that.
Despite of being a member of the Council now, Dante remained the leader of the Team that now consisted of Sophie, Lok, Zhalia, Dan, Cherit and himself. Harrison had also joined the foundation and thanks to Zhalia putting in a good word for him, he managed to be in a team himself. It was actually a team that consisted of him, Scarlett and another seeker that she had yet to meet but judging by the way Harrison only keeps on gushing about how great his team was, she guessed that he was finally happy.
Talking about happy, Lok and Sophie were now what Zhalia would call officially a couple. Whenever they were having some time off, they would spend it together and occasionally ask Dan or her to tag along.
Dante was mostly being busy with doing some work for the Council or traveling to other countries, also on order from the council.
They didn't receive any missions yet and thus, they all weren't actually able to spend some time together.
It didn't go past Zhalia that they were all growing more and more distant from each other with each day passing and even though she knew that Lok tried his best to prevent it, there was no denying.
Zhalia tried to act as indifferent about it as she could. They were only a team after all and she already predicted that they would grow more distant, but she couldn't shake off the slightly bitter feeling that it left.
Whilst being on her own for the past two months, Zhalia spent her time by getting herself her own apartment that she was currently sharing with Dan and training most of the time to stay in shape. She occasionally visited the Foundation Headquarters to help out a bit, but still kept herself distant.
She had also talked to Metz who seemed to have taken a liking to the bluenette as well. It took some time in the beginning but after everything that had happened and that Zhalia had done for the foundation, he grew to accept and respect her.
He even went as far as inviting her to one of the council meetings since the information she would be able to provide by having been part of the Spiral for a period of time would turn out to be very important. Yet, Zhalia kindly refused and did the mission-report . She was not looking forward to meeting the other council members another time. To others, it may seem as if they all have grown to accept her as well but Zhalia knew best that they were still doubting her loyalty.
She hadn't seen Sophie and Lok for almost a month now and the last time she had seen Dante was the day after their victory when the team tiredly went over to crash at his house, too tired to even properly celebrate it.
They all fell asleep and the next day when they woke up, Dante was off to the HQ already and Sophie and Lok went back to the Casterwill mansion.
Zhalia and Dan were staying at his mansion for around three days until Zhalia had found an apartment that was big enough for herself and Dan. During those three days, she hadn't seen Dante once. He always returned when they were asleep and left before they woke up.
She guessed that he didn't even notice them moving out and even if he did, he didn't try to contact them either.
"He is probably pretty busy. You can't blame him because the Foundation is one huge pile of mess right now." Lok had told them when Den had complained about Dante being absent all the time.
Zhalia had usually remained silent whenever the topic about Dante was brought up and didn't fail to notice the worried looks the others were giving her from time to time when they thought that she wasn't looking.
It was up to him whether he wanted to contact them or not, and there was nothing that any of them would be able to change about it. And frankly put, Zhalia couldn't care less.
It was yesterday that when Dan returned from the headquarters that he told her about the news. He informed her that Metz and Guggeheim finally managed to get a proper hold of the current situation and that they were now receiving a new mission.
She had to admit that she didn't reckon with it and was mildly surprised upon hearing it, but she was still having mixed-emotions about it.
Dan seemed to be in the same dilemma as she was in, torn between the part of him that wanted to be happy and the part that was still cautious.
There was no guarantee that the bond the team once shared was still as strong as it used to be, but there was only one way to find out.
Not much was known about the mission, the only thing that Metz told Dan was that they were to meet at Dante's after Lok and Sophie were out of school, what was supposed to be almost an hour ago.
"Dante, huh?" Zhalia mumbled, his name leaving a bitter taste on her tongue. "So he is doubting my skills as a seeker now?" Zhalia asked with a half hearted huff, what didn't go unnoticed by her companion either.
Dan gave a small snort upon hearing her words. "As if Dante would ever doubt your skills." He said, now fully looking at her.
A small bittersweet smile tugged at the corner of her lips. "Time changes people, Dan." Was all Zhalia said before she took another look at her watch.
45 minutes.
"Alright, I am done waiting." She mumbled, her eyes narrowing. She saw Dan giving her a nod out of the corner of her eye before the both of them started to walk towards the entrance.
The first thing that Zhalia noticed when they entered the hallways was that they were deserted, not one person present.
Zhalia exchanged a knowing look with Dan, the latter already knowing what the other was thinking as they both continued to walk through the hallway.
They walked up the flight of stairs that lead them into another hallway where seemingly all the classrooms were located at.
Zhalia heard Dan muttering something that sounded like "Damn stairs." and smirked slightly while she made a mental note to herself that she should include walking stairs into their training schedule.
"Well, it looks like there are around over 30 classrooms. Do we really have to check them all?" Dan asked in a hushed tone, careful not to gain any attention in case someone was there.
Zhalia arched a brow at the brunette, amusement clearly visible in her hazel orbs.
"Oh come on Dan, don't tell me that you're tired already because of the stairs." She drawled, receiving a snort in return.
"Of course not." He swiftly denied, crossing his arms in the process.
Zhalia hummed in return and gave him one last glance before she proceeded to walk, Dan following close behind.
The two of them checked every classroom they passed just to find each one of them empty, much to their dismay. It only made Zhalia feel more suspicious about the entire situation they were currently in, and she didn't have the nerves to deal with both the kids and Dante and a possible attack.
Some more minutes passed and the two of them still didn't find them, but as soon as they have reached the end of the corridor, a voice made Zhalia freeze in place.
She laid her hand on Dan's shoulder, silently signalizing him to stop as well. She placed her index finger onto her lips as a sign for him to remain silent before she took another couple of steps forward, her senses on high alert.
She noticed that the door of the classroom was open, but she wouldn't be able to look into it without being seen.
She turned her head to Dan and gave him a small nod, which he returned, before Zhalia started to walk into the entrance of the classroom, the sounds of her heels clacking against the ground echoing through the empty hallway. She stopped in the threshold with Dan next to her, her hazel eyes immediately scanning the classroom.
At what she assumed was the teachers desk was sitting a man who seemed to be in his mid-thirties, wearing a suit and reading a magazine.
His brown hair was slightly messy and his feet were crossed over the desk in a leisured matter while he didn't seem to have noticed their presence yet.
Zhalia's eyes began to roam the back of the classroom and almost instantly did her eyes fall onto the pair that was seated in the back.
Sophie and Lok were sitting in one of the last rows, both surrounded by a series of books and work-sheets. Sophies strawberry-blonde colored hair seemed to be slightly messed up at some parts while her emerald eyes were were steadily fixed onto one of the books, her face holding a small frown. In comparison to Sophie, Lok seemed rather troubled and seemed like he was about to start crying any moment, his feet not standing still beneath the desk.
Zhalia having finally had enough of the wait cleared her throat, her hazel eyes turning to the teacher while her face turned back to it's usual emotionless state.
She watched how the teacher looked up at her from where he was reading his magazine, a small surprised frown on his face upon seeing them.
Two gasps followed right behind, and Zhalia didn't have to look over to know from whom they were coming from.
"Zhalia!" Lok called happily, a bright smile on his face upon seeing his teammate.
Zhalia turned her head to look at them, an eyebrow raised upon seeing the obvious relief that filled both of their eyes and their bright smiles.
"Care to explain?" Zhalia asked as she leaned against the door-frame and crossed her arms across her chest.
Sophie bit her lower lip whereas Lok gave her a small chuckle.
"Well-" Lok started, but got cut off before he was able to even start.
"And who are you?" Came a deeper male voice, the hostility in his voice clearly audible. Zhalia turned her head towards the teacher who had now lowered his magazine and turned to fully look at her. His eyes were narrowed whereas his lips were pursed in a thin line, his gaze anything but friendly.
Zhalia frowned slightly, having expected something like this already. Fortunately, she was more than used to people like this and was rather indifferent about it.
"Family." She firmly replied, firmly keeping his gaze. "And who may you be?" Zhalia returned just as coldly, not the least bit intimidated.
The man furrowed his eyes, obviously doubting her words and lowered his feet from the desk.
"I am the teacher of Mr. Lambert and Miss Casterwill." He informed her tersely, folding his hands on his lap. "And to answer your former question, Mister Lambert and Miss Casterwill are having detention. I don't know if you were aware of it Miss, but they both were being absent from school very often and both at the same time as well, may I add. They have both missed a lot of important lessons that they have to catch up on in order to pass this year."
Zhalia's frown was starting to get more prominent on her face with each second passing, the bluenette trying to stay as calm as possible.
Of course she already knew that Lok and Sophie were missing out on school a lot, but it was because of the Foundation and Metz supposedly took care of excusing them as well.
"I don't recall getting informed about this." Zhalia spoke, an eyebrow slightly arched.
"There was no need to." He replied indifferently.
Zhalia pursed her lips into a thin line and something in her clicked at his attitude. She straightened her back and took a couple of steps into the classroom before she reached the desk, stopping in front of it.
"There is." She started in a tone that could have frozen the desert. "As far as I am concerned, you as a mere teacher have no right to keep your students longer at school without their guardians permission or notifying anyone about it. Also, I am more than certain that you, Sir, know just as well as I do that Sophie and Lok have been absent with a valid excuse. And that's exactly why I am now going to take them home with me without any more delays."
Zhalia turned her head to where Lok and Sophie were seated at, both looking at her with obvious surprise.
"Pack your things, we're leaving." Zhalia informed them before she turned back to the teacher.
He was looking at her with a rather calm expression, but she didn't miss the way his fists were tightly clenched nor the way his eyes were filled with obvious displeasure.
He remained silent and didn't say another word while Lok and Sophie practically jumped from their seats and stuffed their things in their backpacks, smiles on both of their faces.
As soon as they were done they were walking over to Zhalia, only the noticing Dan who was standing behind her the entire time.
"All done!" Lok happily chirped as they reached her.
Zhalia gave him a small nod out of acknowledgment before she shot the teacher one last look, turning around without as much as another word.
Lok gave their teacher a small yet sheepish smile before he followed Zhalia out of the room, Sophie following close behind after having closed the door.
As soon as they left the classroom and entered the hallway, Zhalia suddenly felt herself getting pulled forwards, blonde entering her vision.
Zhalia was too startled to react and remained rooted on the very spot. She heard Dan chuckling and threw him a glare that unfortunately, didn't seem to have an effect on him at all.
"You're my savior Zhaal!" Lok half-yelled while a happy laugh escaped his lips. "I almost died in there!" He exclaimed dramatically before he pulled back, releasing Zhalia from his rather tight grip.
Zhalia merely waved her hand as a matter to brush it off before her eyes fell onto Sophie who also shot her a grateful smile.
"Thanks Zhalia." The blonde told her female teammate, genuinely grateful.
Zhalia gave the teens a small nod in return as they started to walk back through the hallways and exited the building.
It didn't even take a minute until the group fell into a comfortable chatter, talking about anything and everything that came into their mind on their way to Dante's mansion.
Zhalia had to admit that a part of her, as small as it was, had missed it. It was a nice little distraction of whatever would expect them at Dante's.
It took them a total of ten minutes until the mansion was finally in sight and Zhalia had to admit that the familiar sight gave her mixed emotions.
She looked at Dan out of the corner of her eye and caught his eye, him looking just as expressionless as she was.
In comparison to them, the other two seemed to be rather oblivious to the mixed- feelings their teammates were currently having and instead, fastened their pace.
Lok gave an obviously pleased sigh as soon as they passed the gate, his blue eyes shining brightly in the afternoon sun while Sophie seemed to be just as excited.
"Oh man, I still can't believe it!" Lok said with a bright grin plastered on his face.
"Me too." Sophie sided with him. "It feels like ages since we have last been here." She admitted, earning a nod from Lok in return.
The group of four finally reached the mansion and walked up the small flight of steps that were located in front of the entrance before they came to an halt in front of the door.
Look seemingly hesitated to open the door, eyeing the doorknob wearily.
"Should we just walk in or knock?" He whispered and bit his lower lip, throwing the others an uncertain look.
Zhalia's eyebrows shot up in surprise at the blonde's question. Well, he did have a reason for asking since after all, time had passed and they didn't know whether things were as they used to be. Or to word it differently, if Dante was still as he used to be. Lok being considerate and worried about something like this was also rather surprising to Zhalia. Lok usually was the first one to barge right in and call out for Dante to check if he was there just to make himself feel at home. Him being reluctant about opening the door and walking in showed Zhalia that he as well had considered that things made have changed or at least, he had thought about it once.
Sophie heaved a sigh and walked over to stand next to Lok before she raised her hand and knocked on the door.
"Dante, it's us." She spoke, slightly hesitant nonetheless.
Silence engulfed the group for a moment and it seemed like everyone held their breath, none of them daring to move.
It was when they heard a faint 'it's open' coming from the inside that they all breathed a small sigh of relief before Lok opened the door.
They all made their way into the familiar mansion, Dan closing the door behind them before he followed the others into the living-room where they were expecting Dante to be at.
True enough, as soon as the small group entered the living-room they were greeted by the sight of Dante sitting in one of his arm-chairs, the Holotome neatly placed on his lap.
He looked up as soon as he heard the footsteps getting louder and smiled at the sight of his team, shutting the Holotome shut upon seeing them.
"Hey Dante." Lok spoke up first in order to avoid any kind of awkward atmosphere as he waked towards the couch, placing his backpack down before he sat down.
Sophie followed right behind and sat down next to him, giving their mentor a smile that he returned in an instant.
His eyes then fell onto the remaining pair that was still standing at the entrance, seemingly not intending to move away from where they were currently at.
Dan gave Dante a small nod, having already seen him today, that he firmly returned before Dan walked over to take a seat onto the armrest of the sofa.
It was then that amber and hazel clashed.
Neither of them broke their gaze and the first thing that Zhalia noticed was that his amber eyes were still holding the warmth they did before.
It was tempting for Zhalia to believe that he was still the same old Dante Vale, leader of their team and the person she had come to respect highly.
But she knew that it wasn't the case.
To the others, it seemed like he was still the same and that nothing about him had changed but Zhalia knew better and as for the moment, Dante Vale was like an open book to her.
The dark-circles under his eyes were slightly faded, but still visible enough for Zhalia to know that he most likely didn't get any sleep for some time now. Her eyes then fell onto his hands and the first thing that Zhalia noticed were the slightly faded bruises on the back of his hand. She guessed that he must have gotten involved in a fight as well and that just recently because he obviously was too exhausted to completely heal it with Everfight.
What seemed like an eternity was only a second and Zhalia looked back up to meet his gaze, unwavering.
"Zhalia." Dante acknowledged, giving the bluenette a small smile.
Said female gave him a small nod in return, her cold facade still firmly put in place. She still wasn't quite used to the idea of spending most of the time with the team again and also, it was still possible that they would only be together as long as the mission would last before they would all go their own ways again.
It wasn't easy to admit, but it had always been Dante who made sure that the team would remain in touch even if they weren't having a mission and with him being gone most of the time, they all drifted further and further apart from each other.
"So Dante," Sophie started, putting on a big smile as she looked at her mentor. "How have you been?"
Four pairs of eyes turned over to look at Dante, equally curious about what he had been up to the past months.
Dante in return heaved a small sigh, smiling nonetheless as he looked at Sophie. "Busy." He admitted. "The foundation was a big mess and it took some time until everything went back to a rather normal state."
Sophie gave him a small nod out of understanding, she herself having been quite busy with her family during the past two months.
"I'm happy that you managed to get us a mission, nonetheless." Lok spoke up with a smile, but the hint of slight uncertainty was still there.
"Yeah." Dan swiftly agreed, crossing his arms across his chest in a leisured matter."It's been ages since we have last been together like this, with all members present that is." Den spoke calmly, referring to Zhalia's undercover mission.
"It's been quite some time." He softly agreed. Dante wasn't oblivious to Lok's message and couldn't help the small pang of guilt that hit him. He was forced to admit that he had neglected his team because of his new position as a council member, but didn't have much of a say in this matter either. The foundation had been a mess after the battle against the Blood Spiral and needed every kind of support they could get. Dante had spend a lot of sleepless nights working on various kind of documents and helping to put the foundation back on it's feet so that he had no time to even do as much as ask about any of them.
Dante now turned his head to look at Lok. "Have you run into any kind of trouble on your way here?" He asked, tilting his head slightly.
Lok and Sophie exchanged a small sheepish look before Lok scratched the back of his neck, giving a small chuckle.
"Well, that's actually a funny story." Lok started but got cut off by Dan's rather amused snort.
"They got into detention." He told his mentor, a small mischievous smile on his lips.
Lok threw his teammate a small glare, having wanted to word it slightly differently. Dante in return arched an eyebrow at the blonde haired teens, curiosity now clearly visible in his amber eyes.
"Why?" He inquired, the small hint of amusement clearly audible in his voice. Lok in return heaved a surrendering sigh and slumped his shoulders.
"Well me and Sophie have been missing out on school a lot lately, you know, Foundation and Casterwill business. So we missed some lessons and even though we weren't attending these lessons, Metz had us excused." Lok explained, looking over to Sophie who nodded out of agreement.
"So basically, there is this teacher who had always had an eye onto the two of us. Instead of making sure that we knew what was going on by giving us a small explanation or something beforehand like the other teachers did, he kept on picking us whenever he was asking some questions and forced us to write tests even though he knew that we had no idea what was going on." Lok exclaimed while he waving his arms around out of disbelief, much to the amusement of the rest.
"So today after lesson, me and Sophie were about to pack out things and were like overly motivated and stuff but of course our teacher had other plans. He forced us to stay in detention so that we could catch on the stuff we had missed out on and I was actually considering to use Kipperin and simply fly out of the window just to see his face!" Lok told him, making Sophie chuckle at his words.
"As if you would have done that." Sophie teased, earning a disbelieving look from Lok.
"I would!" He insisted, his eyes open wide.
Dante gave a small chuckle and slightly shook his head. It seemed like despite of him having been absent for some time, they didn't change the slightest.
And he was more than pleasantly surprised about it.
"Well, how did you get out of there if you didn't use Kipperin?" Dante asked, making Lok pause for a moment.
The blonde gave him a grin before he turned to look at Zhalia and suddenly, she was the new center of attention, much to her dismay.
"Zhalia got us out of there." He simply said, shooting the bluenette another one of his bright and toothy grins.
Dante turned to look at Lok, arching an eyebrow. "She did?" He asked, a small smirk tugging at the corner of his lips.
Lok bobbed his head in return. "She did, and she even managed to make him shut up. It was epic I'm telling you, you should have seen his expression!" Lok told his mentor, chuckling at the memory.
"I have to say that it was really amusing to watch. How did you come up with all of this in the first place?" Sophie inquired, looking at the older female in slight wonder.
Zhalia was about to open her mouth and speak up, but Dan beat it to her.
"It's Zhalia we're talking about." He smirked. "She is a pro, and a pro never reveals his secrets to success, aren't I right?"He asked, receiving an amused look from Zhalia.
Out of everything that she had expected him to say, she didn't expect this. It was quite amusing to watch, that she had to admit, and she couldn't help but feel slightly proud. Dan and her have formed a very strong bond that was similar to the bond that siblings shared. Not many words needed to be exchanged in order to know what the other one was thinking or how the other was feeling and living with Zhalia had taught him a lot of very useful things.
Zhalia gave him one of her trademark smirks and tilted her head slightly to the side, eyeing Dan with a knowing look.
He quoted the exact same sentence that she had told him once and it seemed like he didn't forget about it either, and that only was showing her that he was taking her every word to heart.
"Indeed." Zhalia said, giving him a small wink before she turned to look at Dante, her smirk having disappeared already.
"What's the mission about?" She asked, coming straight to the point. She never liked beating around the bush and now that they finally received a mission after what seemed like an eternity, she wanted to know if it was worth the wait.
Dante turned to look at her, locking her eyes with his own in an instant, neither of them looking away.
There was something in his eyes that Zhalia couldn't quite identify, a mixture of what seemed to be slight confusion but also something she was all too familiar with.
Guilt.
Dante then broke their gaze and opened the Holotome without another word, his eyes now fixed onto the device on his lap. As soon as he lifted the lid of the Holotome, a small mission card appeared.
"The mission is about retrieving the amulet of El Tunchi." Dante told them in his usual professional tone.
Sophie narrowed her eyes, a look of recognition crossing her face. "I think that I have read about this myth once." The Casterwill heiress admitted, trying to remember what it was about.
"Legends say that he is a man who once wandered the rainforest, got lost and died in there. Thus, he now whistles a certain tune, always the same short melody to lure people into their death. It also says that if you answer his whistle, he will kill you in the most hideous and cruel way possible. " Dante explained, and Lok grimaced at his words.
"Creepy." Lok muttered under his breath, Dan siding with him by nodding in agreement.
"There have been various reports stating a sudden disappearance of tourists that included a seeker. Its our job to find it's amulet that is rumored to be located in the rainforest of Peru." Dante informed the Team, looking up from his Holotome.
The others gave him a firm nod, signalizing him that they understood before he went on with his explanation.
"We are going to leave at sunrise." Dante said as he took the Mission-card and neatly placed it into his pocket, closing the Holotome right after.
"Any questions?" He asked, looking around just to watch the others shake their head no.
"Well then Team, we have a mission."
