A/N: A big thanks to MadCatta for being my Beta, I followed your suggestion.
Matt yawned as he went down the stairs to get his breakfast, finding the two adults already at the table discussing something quietly while Jamie and Pedro played cards. Jin, from the look of it. From the delicious aroma wafting through from the kitchen, Matt assumed Scott was cooking a proper breakfast instead of toast. He wandered into the spacious room quietly – noting the cautious, slightly concerned glances the others gave him as he did so. 'They're wondering if we're gonna have another fight,' he thought with a half-smile tugging at his lips.
As he suspected, he found Scott standing at the stove with his back to him, from the way his arm was moving, it looked like he was stirring something. "Morning," he said cheerfully, wondering if Scott was regretting his decision to allow Matt into his mind.
He turned to look at the first of the Five, face impassive for a moment before giving him a small smile. "Hey." With an inaudible sigh of relief escaping his lips as Scott turned back to the food, he asked, "What's for breakfast?"
"Scrambled eggs. I didn't fancy giving you toast, if I burnt it something would probably fly out of the window." Matt looked at him blankly. Then he laughed, thinking incredulously, 'Did Scott just make a joke?'
He walked over to the counter beside the stove and pulled some bread out of the bread bin, pulling the toaster a little closer to him, "In that case I better make it then, huh? Then it's my own fault." He glanced over at his companion in time to see the corner of his lips twitch slightly into a half-smile.
XXXXX
The others were cautiously optimistic, Matt and Scott were not exactly friends but the fighting had completely ceased. It wasn't something they consciously did that changed things; they still made insulting comments and suggestions towards each other, but it was as if the malice had been sucked out of it, and it became more like a contest to see who could best each other. This left the hacienda in a very comfortable atmosphere, which was shattered by the arrival of a member of the Nexus.
"So what are you suggesting?" Scott asked, all trace of good humour gone as he gazed steadily at the bishop, oldest member of the Nexus. The man turned to look at him, answering bluntly, "I suggest, young man, that the four of you leave Peru as soon as possible."
"Why do we need to do that?" Jamie said, looking a little confused. "Sounds like a bad idea to me."
"He is right," Pedro said slowly, still getting used to the English language. "We are as safe here as anywhere else. I believe it is a bad idea to move us."
The bishop twitched irritably, clearly not used to meeting such opposition. "The Nexus has determined that this country is not a safe place to be."
"What makes you think that?" Matt questioned, his first bit of input into the conversation since the man arrived.
"Two reasons, the first being that this country being where the second gate opened, it is entirely possible the Old Ones are residing here, ready to attack you as soon as possible and two, because if you were to come to England, you would be closer to the Nexus headquarters, making it easier to provide protection."
"Provide protection?" Scott scoffed, his eyes narrowing slightly, "You guys certainly do a great deal of that, don't you?" Hearing the sarcastic undertone loud and clear, the bishop's face contorted in anger and he glared at the teenager. "It is our duty to protect and guide the Five."
"Guide us?" Scott hissed, anger visible in his blazing brown eyes. "Since when have you guided us? All our lives, all four of us, have got by just fine without you lot to protect us," the emphasis was not lost on the older man who glared even harder at the American. "And besides, how can you people protect us against the Old Ones when we've got powers to help us and you don't? Seems to me that when the time comes, you're the ones who'll need the help."
The bishop turned red as he faced Scott fully, obviously trying not to shout. "If you're so good at protecting yourself, young man, kindly explain how you ended up kidnapped and tortured?"
Scott turned white at the memory before his eyes were set ablaze with rage. Matt decided now was the time to intervene. "I agree with Scott."
Everyone jolted in surprised as they looked at the English boy. "Moving us now hardly seems like a good idea and besides, the Old Ones will attack us eventually, no matter what country we're in at the time," Matt turned to look the man in the eye steadily. "And he has a point about you supposedly taking care of us too; in the past, your interference with me only put me in greater danger. And I haven't forgotten Fabian, either."
The man turned red once more at the mention of the traitor. "That man acted of his own volition." He stated pompously. "He was not acting under the Nexus' orders –"
"No, but he still almost got Matt and Pedro killed!" Richard snapped angrily, uncomfortable with the presence of the other man. "And you guys recruited him in the first place, without checking who he really supported!"
"I'm sure I don't know what –"
"He told us," Matt cut in. "He told us that he had chosen to support the Old Ones before the whole thing with Raven's Gate, and he only joined up after I'd destroyed it – when Professor Dravid was killed."
The man looked over each and every one of them slowly, as if he might bore holes in their heads with his eyes, before forcing a reply out through clenched teeth, "I can see you are of one mind. If you decided to heed our warnings," he pulled out a black mobile phone and held it out to Richard as he talked to him. "Call us, line one puts you straight through to a member."
Richard frowned at him. "Why are you giving this to me?" he nodded at the boys. "They're the Five. Give it to Matt."
The bishop eyes went slightly hard and he voice slightly cold. "I don't think the children–"
"Children?!" Scott almost shouted, glowering at the elder male. "Don't patronize us, old man."
"We've seen far more than you'll ever know," Jamie added, angry at the way the man had treated his brother, "We're more than capable of fighting, and we don't need other people to protect us."
Matt decided he better straighten things out before the clergyman got really angry. "We appreciate the concern and we are grateful for your help," he began in a calmer voice, "But we don't need to be protected or told what to do; it's our fight."
The man seemed slightly calmer after listening to Matt's statement, but he was still annoyed. "Very well." He was stiffly and marched out the door.
XXXXX
The days past by all the same after the bishop's visit, but they all had a small niggling suspicion about his words, wondering if maybe, just maybe, it would be better if they left Peru. The answer came one day when Professor Chambers sent Matt and Scott out to buy food in the town, Matt because Pedro hated to walk along the streets and see all the poor (not that Matt liked it any better, but it was personal for the other boy) and Scott because he was the one who was cooking that night. Besides, she didn't think they were in danger of beating each other half to death, seeing as they were so amiable now.
They had just left the towns perimeters and were trekking back up the long road to the hacienda when a snake slithered in their path. Scott, having been raised in a desert, thought nothing of it and made to move around the python. Matt, however, saw the danger and managed to pull him out of the way just before the creature's fangs sank into his calf. The serpent did, however, managed to curl around Scott's right leg as he was pulled back and began to creep up along it, past his knee, past his thigh, where Matt finally slammed all his mental energy into the thing and managed to fling it off.
Scott got his breathing back under control and turned to the English boy, opening his mouth to thank him when he saw another snake on the sand, crawling over rapidly to latch into Matt. Scott seized his wrist and yanked him out of the way, the serpent's fangs only just missing his skin as it ripped into his jeans by his ankle, spraying venom on the white skin beneath. Matt fell against the American, and as they heard a hissing noise, they turned and saw hundreds of snakes coming up behind them.
Scott's heart pounded in his chest. Matt seized his bicep and sprinted down the road, dragging Scott with him, and they ran for their lives. The snakes came at them from different angles, trying to cut them off, slithering into the ground before popping out around them and trying to bite them. The boys formed an odd pattern; Matt would run, pulling the other teenager along beside him, who would look around until he spotted the earth shifting as a serpent climbed out to lunge at them, he would then shout a warning at Matt who would use his power to throw the murderous reptiles away. It wasn't working as well as they would've liked, but it still held the snakes off and they had no other options.
'Scott? What's going on?!' His brother's voice in his head startled him momentarily so he almost didn't warn Matt before another python, this one red and black sank its teeth into him. He recovered himself just in time to wrap his arms around Matt's waist and throw them both to the left where no serpents could be found. He then responded to Jamie, 'Snakes! They're massing on us! We need help!'
He listened in his mind while dodging the snaps at his feet and legs as Jamie went to Pedro, Richard and Professor Chambers, telling them of the situation. Then Scott was distracted as one snakes' strike managed to break his skin but luckily was not able to inject it's venom into his bloodstream, as far as he could tell, before Matt blasted it to the side. 'Thank God Matt's power is telekinesis, very handy thing to have . . . '
Dusk was happily falling on them and they weren't anywhere near the hacienda, soon they would be trapped in a desert, dancing to avoid death with no way to see the creatures attacking them and no hope of getting inside to safety. Scott and Matt were exhausted and their reactions were getting slower, sweat coating their clothes and skin. Just when they thought they were dead, two bright lights illuminated the desert and they looked, half blind, to see Richard leaning out of the car's passenger window, beckoning and shouting for them to keep moving. They obliged happily.
The professor was driving and she sung the jeep around at a terrifyingly fast rate so the side was facing the two teenagers. The back door sprang open and now it was Jamie leaning out, stretching out his hand desperately as if to somehow pull them to him. The snakes were enough of an enticement though and Matt grabbed the Americans' forearm, quickly allowing himself to be hauled in as he heaved Scott in after him. Pedro pressed himself against the window on the other side to make room for all four of them as Jamie was squashed against him by Matt's weight, who was still helping Scott in by the arm.
Just as the biggest snake, a seven-foot long brown monstrosity, snapped out to bite him, he managed to slam the door shut so it hit the window instead of his neck, leaving a serious crack in the glass, though it did not break, to Scott's immense relief. Professor Chambers slammed on the accelerator, sending them through the desert at an alarming rate. Richard quickly used the black mobile the bishop had given him to find a place for them. As they felt heard and felt the serpents being crushed beneath the jeeps heavy wheels, they relaxed a bit, feeling a lot safer than they had out on the road and sat up properly in their seats, allowing Pedro and Jamie to sit up and get some more room too. As they did, their legs hit the six small backpacks that had been thrown onto the floor of the car in the back. Ever since the bishop had first come with his offer, Richard and indeed Matt had insisted that they keep the absolute essentials they needed in small bags, always within reach, so that if they needed to leave in an emergency they were ready. They were all glad they did now.
The journalist then turned around in his seat to look at the boys, saying, "Alright, he's got a safe house for us in the capital. We'll stay there a few days while we figure out what to do."
"Going to England now sounds like a good idea." Pedro muttered, causing weak smiles to break out on the other three teenagers' faces. Richard, too, gave him a brief half-smile before turning around again. Only to do a double take and look back at Matt and Scott who were both busy looking at the marks on Scott's leg to see if any venom had got into the wound.
During the chase, Matt's hand had slipped from Scott's bicep to his hand, lacing their fingers together as they ran. And even now in the car they still hadn't let go.
A/N: It makes me very happy to note that my chapters appear to be getting longer, though this one isn't as long as the last one.
