"The past," Ian continued, circling around Ben to his right side. "It can never be changed, never be forgotten, never be erased." He paused, chuckling evilly. "The past can come back and really bite you in the ass."

Ben stood motionless, his eyes shifting from one nightmare to the next, as all three gathered around the table stared intently back. He didn't recognize the youngest one, but he had more than enough to be concerned about with the other two. Ben could literally feel the blood draining from his face as the staring contest continued. He had no words, no thoughts. He felt numb. The past had just caught him off guard and smacked him square in the face.

"What's the matter, Ben?" Ian scoffed. "You look like you've just seen a ghost."

The emotions kept coming, flooding Ben's mind as he stood still, his legs feeling so heavy he was sure he couldn't move them. An old flame. A former teacher. Two people he definitely never wanted to see again. A onetime treasure-hunting partner that proved even Ben Gates was capable of a serious lapse in judgment. And after what he put the treasure-hunting trio through, Ben didn't want to see him ever again either. As for the younger one, though Ben couldn't identify him, judging from the rest of the lineup, he assumed he wouldn't be thrilled about whoever the youth was either.

"Why don't you take a seat at the table, Ben," Ian coaxed, resuming his own place with his new friends.

Ben's eyes locked with those of his former high school history teacher. Savage had aged, gone gray faster than Ben would have expected. Perhaps that's what twenty years in prison did to a man. A guilty man. His eyes were still glacial, maybe even more hardened, more insensitive than before. Remorseless. Calloused. He was the same monster. Ben suddenly felt like he was 15 years old again, standing helpless in the doorway of his classroom, crushingly devastated, shocked and afraid…caught in a situation he didn't want to be a part of. The same staggering urge to vomit was present now as he stood before this lowlife creep again, twenty-three years later.

Trying to maintain control of his stomach, his gaze shifted to his ex-girlfriend. A relationship, if you could call it that, which Ben always considered one of his biggest mistakes. She took him for ride that he didn't realize he wanted off of until it was too late. He shuddered as he recalled the bitter ending. She was still beautiful, though. The perfect poster-child for the expression, 'Don't judge a book by its cover.' He was the first to admit he'd been fooled. Under that guise of exquisite beauty and sophistication was a devious, conniving, self-serving vixen. Her cold eyes bore straight through him, right to his core. His mind suddenly flashed to Abigail. She had the power to do that with her gaze as well—but it was far different. With just a look, Ben always felt Abby could see straight into his soul, but with eyes filled with love, honesty, devotion. Ciara's stare was icy, hard, vengeful, loathing. She had always been tough. Apparently the years had only made her more tenacious. Perhaps more dangerous.

"Come on Ben," Ian insisted. "Join us at the table so we can get to work."

"No," Ben finally spoke. He pointed at Savage and Ciara. "I don't want anywhere near these two…sick maniacs."

Savage laughed, thoroughly enjoying seeing Ben in a position of vulnerability, his emotions completely exposing his weakness. "It's good to see you too, Ben."

Ben threw an irate glance at Savage, but found himself too disgusted to even come back with an insult.

Ian stood up from the table, his sudden movement causing Ben to turn back to face him.

"Ben-" Ian started.

"Forget it!" Ben exclaimed. "I'm not staying here with a bunch of psychopaths." He looked over at Dex, who was staring at Ben in confusion. "And whoever you are, you ought to get out while you still can. Deals off, Ian. I'm out."

Ben turned and stormed out of the room. Savage got up to chase him down, but Ian held up his hand, gesturing for him to sit back down. Ian smiled cleverly, letting Ben get almost to the front door before deciding to say anything.

"Oh Ben," Ian called in a sing-song tone. "I know you've only been gone a few hours, but maybe you're interested in seeing what your girlfriend's up to right now?"

...

Riley stood on Ben and Abigail's porch, pacing back and forth a couple times as he tried to figure out a good excuse for why he was dropping by that evening. He thought the drive over would give him sufficient time to come up with something clever, but now as he stood at his destination, he decided he should have driven around the block a few more times.

"This is stupid," Riley muttered to himself. "Abby's my friend. I don't need an excuse to come visit. Why would she find it weird anyway…I'm here all the time." Riley pushed the doorbell and could faintly hear the first few bars of the Star Spangled Banner. "Only Ben…" he remarked, shaking his head in disbelief.

Several seconds later, the front door swung open, and Abigail appeared in the doorway. At first she looked at him in suspiciously, but gestured for him to come in.

"Hi Riley," she said. "Everything ok?"

"Yeah," he replied. "Did you know your doorbell plays the national anthem?"

Abigail rolled her eyes. "Don't ask me where he found that," she expressed, making sure he knew it was not her idea. "It can get pretty annoying, but he was so excited about it I didn't have the heart to tell him not to have it installed."

Riley laughed. "The things Ben gets excited about."

"I've been telling him for awhile that it's a little much," she explained, giggling as she led Riley into the living room. "He finally got an idea of what I was talking about a couple weekends ago. You want something to drink?"

"Sure," Riley replied, relieved that she was too busy thinking about her doorbell story to be suspicious of why he was there.

"Lemonade ok?" She asked, disappearing into the kitchen.

"Yeah, whatever you got," Riley answered, making himself comfortable as he stretched out on the couch.

Abigail walked back into the room with two glasses, and handed one to Riley. She sat down in one of the recliners and set her own glass on the end table. "A couple weeks ago we were visited by some girl scouts, selling cookies."

"Mmm, cookies," Riley remarked. "What'd you order? Thin mints? Tagalongs? Caramel Dee-lights?"

Abigail looked at him curiously. "I see you know your girl scout cookies."

"Duh," he said. "Everyone knows girl scout cookies. Soooo, what did you order for Riley?"

Abby shook her head. "I have no idea. You'll have to ask Ben…he filled out the order form."

"Nooooooo!" Riley exclaimed dramatically. "Ben is a shortbread kind of guy! There's no way he ordered anything adventurous and exciting."

Abigail laughed. "I don't know, Riley. Maybe he'll surprise you. Ben does have an adventurous side, you know."

Riley's eyes narrowed as he studied the silly grin on Abigail's face. He wasn't sure he liked the implications of that statement and didn't think he wanted to pry any further to find out.

"The treasure hunts!" Abigail declared, blushing slightly as she noticed the suspicious look on Riley's face. "Wouldn't you call those adventurous?"

"Hmm," Riley considered. "That's what you were talking about. Sure…"

"Anyway," Abigail said, deciding it was time to change the subject. "The girl scouts came to the door, rang the doorbell, and when Ben got up to answer it, the girls were hysterically laughing on the porch. Ben, being Ben, of course had to explain to these two ten-year-olds that the national anthem was nothing to be laughing at, and then started giving them a history lesson on Francis Scott Key. At this point, from the kitchen I could hear Ben instructing someone at the door, so I went to see who he was torturing, and discovered the cute little girls in their uniforms, wide-eyed and just staring at Ben, apparently waiting for him to take a breath so they could ask him if he wanted to buy some cookies. I told Ben that the girls probably had a lot more stops to make before it got dark outside, which is when I told him to order some cookies from them and let them be on their way."

Riley took a sip from his lemonade, laughing as he imagined Ben telling those girls not to laugh at his doorbell. "That's pretty funny, Abby. Ben never told me about that."

"Oh wait, it gets better," she said. "A few seconds after he closes the door, the doorbell rings again. The song gets to the end of the first line, and then it rings again, starting the song all over again. This must have happened about ten times before Ben got annoyed enough to stomp through the hall and swing open the door, only to find the giggling girls racing down the driveway. So he slammed the door closed, which caused the 'see' part of 'oh say can you see' to get stuck and that note just kept buzzing through the house. I told him to call you to come and fix it, but he insisted he could do it himself. I think he really just didn't want any more grief over his doorbell, which I'm sure you would have given him."

Riley nodded. "No doubt!"

Abigail continued her story, giggling as she recalled it. "So he finally gets it fixed, comes back inside, and by now he's all worked up so I sent him to his study to go relax for awhile. Maybe an hour later, the doorbell rings again. Ben comes out of his study, muttering under his breath about how it better not be those girl scouts again, and swings open the front door."

"The girl scouts?" Riley asked.

"Nope," Abby said. "Two boys, dressed in their little league uniforms selling candy bars. They both had taken off their hats and placed them over their hearts, and were dramatically singing with the doorbell. Ben tried to be calm with them, but I could tell he was fuming. He just bought a couple candy bars and sent them on their way. He came back into the kitchen, scratching his head in confusion, and asked me if I thought we should get a different doorbell."

Riley shook his head in disbelief. "Ben, Ben, Ben… He must have been an interesting boy growing up, don't you think?"

Abigail laughed, agreeing with Riley.

"So," she said after a couple minutes, realizing the doorbell had sidetracked her from her initial surprise upon seeing Riley at the door. "Did you come over here for any particular reason?"

"Huh?" Riley asked, somewhat forgetting why he'd come over in the first place. Check on Abby, oh yeah…

"Ben's not here this weekend, you know."

Riley nodded. "Yeah, I know. I was just, um…driving around, and I was in the neighborhood, so I thought I'd drop in and say hi to my good friend Abigail." That sounded good, right? Riley was pleased with his explanation.

Abigail sighed, arching an eyebrow suspiciously. "Ben told you to check up on me, didn't he?"

"What!?" Riley exclaimed defensively. "Ben? Ben would never do something like that! I mean, he wouldn't unless he had your permission of course—"

"Oh shut up, Riley," Abigail said playfully, amused by Riley's attempts at covering for Ben. She stood up and took hers and Riley's glasses out to the kitchen. "You know Ben as well as I do."

"Well, probably better, actually," Riley interjected.

Abby appeared back in the doorframe, hands on her hips. "Oh you think so?"

"Er, um," he stumbled. "Well, I mean, come on Abs, I've known him longer. It only makes sense that I know him better."

She began tapping her foot in that impatient, aggravated way that Ben sometimes referred to. If Riley recalled correctly, Ben also noted the tapping foot was like a time bomb, just waiting for the precise moment to explode. Ben said he'd become pretty good at diffusing the bomb. Diffuse the bomb, Riley.

"Ah, ok," Riley said. "Well, I guess you do know him in certain respects better than I do. So…let's call it a tie."

Abigail smiled, and the tapping stopped. Bomb diffused! "So, why's he having you check up on me?"

Ben was right. It was scary when 'So' came out of her mouth! Well, Riley thought to himself, Ben said you seemed 'off' lately. So I'm here to make sure you aren't doing anything crazy. Hmm…don't think that would score Ben, or Riley, too many points with the blonde.

"Umm," Riley began, not quite sure how to respond without getting Ben into some hot water. "I guess…he…well you know Ben—"

"As well as you, we've already established that, Riley."

"Why are you asking me then? If you know him so well, then you know why he wanted me to check up on you!"

"Riley," Abigail stated seriously.

"Look, I don't know, ok?" Riley admitted. "He just seemed edgy and preoccupied by this conference, and he just asked me if I would stop by a couple times to make sure everything was ok with you. Now really, is that so awful?"

Abigail's eyes softened. "No, it's not awful at all," she said. "But how many times before this weekend has he asked you to drop in on me when he was only going to be gone a couple days?"

Riley rubbed the back of his neck as he tried to recall a time that Ben had asked him to check on Abigail. She definitely had a point. He looked her in the eyes and could tell she was worried. "I see what you're getting at."

Abigail nodded. "So he seemed strange to you before he left, too?"

"Just more nervous than usual," Riley explained. "Was there something different about this conference?"

"I don't know," she said, letting out a deep breath. "I just hope he calls soon."

...

Ben froze in his tracks, his hand paused on the doorknob of the front door. The surveillance. Ben didn't think that was an issue now that Ian had him where he wanted him, after all, he had said…Ben rolled his eyes. Did it really matter what he said? It was all about control with Ian. He said what he needed to in order to get Ben to cooperate. Truth, lies, it didn't matter with Ian. As long as he got his way. Slowly Ben let go of the doorknob, and turned around. Now that he knew who he was dealing with, he definitely wouldn't be taking any chances with Abigail.

A few seconds later, Ben appeared in the doorway of the meeting room. Ian smiled at him.

"I thought that might entice you," he remarked.

"You said that was temporary!" Ben blurted out angrily.

Ian shrugged, pretending he didn't know what Ben was talking about. "Did I?"

Ben suddenly rushed forward in a rage, lunging at Ian and managing to grab hold of his neck. As Ian gasped for breath, Ben pushed him against the wall and held him there. "You are going to leave her alone!" He ordered.

Ben was so focused on Ian that he didn't notice that Savage had calmly stood up and walked around the table behind Ben. Savage caught Ben off guard, grabbing him forcefully by the back of his shirt and pulling him away from Ian.

"Better settle down, tough guy," Savage remarked, pushing Ben against the wall. "Out there you may be everyone's favorite treasure hunter; the noble, well-renowned, protector of the common good, Ben Gates." He paused, snickering to himself as he noticed the fear and disgust in Ben's eyes; he had seen that look before, many years ago. Ah, Ben…if you had only minded your own business… "But in here, you're nothing but a meddling, egocentric, duplicitous interloper. In our little society of five here, four of us can't stand the sight of you. Do you realize what that means? No one here is on your side. You have no one in your corner, so I suggest you better get control of your emotional outbursts, understand?" Savage slammed Ben's head against the wall, causing him to cough and wince in pain.

"Don't…touch me…again," Ben demanded in between coughs.

Savage chuckled at Ben's weakness, and deliberately patted him on the cheek. "I don't think you're in any position to be giving out orders." He returned calmly to his seat, while Ben stood against the wall, working on catching his breath.

Ian made his way back to the table as well, glaring loathingly at Ben. "Sit down," he ordered in a no-nonsense tone. "You'd be wise to resign yourself to the fact that you are going to be part of this team—whether it's through cooperation or by force. That part is up to you. That's about the only thing that's up to you."

Reluctantly, Ben took a few steps toward the table and the four watched him as he finally took his seat. He felt an uncomfortable tension forming in every muscle. His joints tightened and his hands clenched into fists, his jaw clamped shut. He tried his best to avert his eyes from the eight that were currently fixated on him.

"Very good, Ben," Ian continued. "You're beginning to understand who's in charge. Now if you play nice, and do as you're told, there might be a chance you'll get to return to your absurdly boring life and put that ring on your girlfriend's finger afterall."

Ben could feel the resentful stare of his former girlfriend, and as he glanced in her direction, the bitterness and jealousy was apparent. Ben quickly looked away, not wanting to feel even the slightest hint of sympathy toward her. When they were together, she had made it abundantly clear that she wanted to marry him. But Ben was still young, his primary focus was finding the Templar treasure, and honestly, he didn't see himself settling down…ever. And he made that perfectly clear to her. It wasn't until that relationship was well on its way to ruin that Ben understood her real motive for wanting to marry him. And he didn't want any part of it.

"Never going to get married," Ciara mumbled under her breath, her eyes fixed on her former boyfriend with scathing hatred.

Don't react, Ben. She wants a reaction…you know her. Ben took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. He looked back at Ian, noticing that he was now holding an envelope, his fingers tapping lightly against it as he smiled knowingly at Ben.

Ben's curiosity was getting the best of him. Were the contents of the envelope what he was summoned here to assist with? He sighed, finally accepting the fact that his only way out of this nightmare was to do what they wanted and get it overwith.

"Alright, I'm here and I'm listening," Ben told Ian. "Now, what do you want with me?"