Disclaimer: Life DEFINATELY not Normal is a story set in an alternate universe of Kingdom Hearts, set immediately after the first season of the previous story Life FAR from Normal and also after the Epilogue of, "The Betrayal of Light", also featuring many characters from Disney and Final Fantasy that haven't made it to Kingdom Hearts games or Manga yet.
Author's Note: Part two of the previous episode at your service. I am sooo sorry for the delay. Despite that I love National Treasure, I have to admit it's really hard to write and I kind of lost inspiration to this story, but I'm back for now.
Oh, and some bad news regards to what I heard two days ago. There will be no Kingdom Hearts game for 2016, because they delayed KH2.8 'till January 24th worldwide(12th in Japan) next year due to Tabata wanting to, and I quote, "Polish" FFXV, thus delaying that game to late November this year. Not happy that I was right about being forced to wait for KH3 'till 2018.
Oh well. Nothing I can do about it. Let's enjoy the long awaited episode of this story.
I don't own anything here.
EP 14: Charmed or Not-part two.
Previously, on Life DEFINATELY not Normal...
The leader smirked, before turning to his men, whispering, "Gentlemen. Why is that medallion not in a museum?"
One of the thugs, a black-haired guy with a red jumper, cluelessly asked, "Because it belonged to someone who lost it?"
But the leader shook his head, smirking evilly, "Because it belongs to the national treasure we want." before ordering the group, "Those children can help us. Follow them, and take them as hostages. We don't want the Turks or the FBI finding us, now do we?"
It seemed that another danger was approaching, and this time, the four students of Radiant Academy were in danger.
By the time Lea, Isa, Melody, Myde and Iago arrived back in Radiant City, it was almost dark, which meant that four students missed out on the rest of the day's classes, and knowing that, much to their dismay, that they would end up in trouble with the Headmasters and end up in Xehanort's lecture class again. On the other hand, they could always call Tseng tomorrow about the medallion they found.
"It's bad enough we had to leave Radiant Academy during a school day." Iago was once again complaining, "We'd have to be late in the middle of the night too!?"
"Lighten up, Iago." Lea waved dismissively. "The sun hasn't even completely set yet. We'll be back in time to get into trouble at least."
"Oh yeah, I'm so looking forward to sitting through four hours of Xehanort's lectures tomorrow." Isa grumbled in sarcasm.
"At least we're not lost." Melody pointed out.
Myde nodded in agreement, saying, "Yeah, what's the worst that could happen to us if we're late?"
Suddenly Lea and Isa both tensed and slowed to a stop, which also made their friends pause in their steps as well. Melody was about to ask what was wrong, when Lea placed a finger gently to his lips and shushed her, eyes scanning the area around them. Isa's eyes did the same.
They were in the streets near the shopping mall, when the two of the future Turks gazed around them carefully, their training kicking in.
"Run." Lea finally whispered, realising that they were not alone.
"Why?" Myde asked, whispering and now getting worried.
"We're being followed." The redhead answered. "Just run until we reach the Academy, and for Ifrit's sake, don't look back."
Realising that Lea and Isa were right, Melody, Myde and especially a now freaked out Iago nodded, before the group then made a break for it as fast as they could, hoping to lose track of whoever was following them. Unfortunately, it seemed that running was a bad idea, because they heard an unfamiliar voice shouting out in the early night.
"Don't let them get away! After them!" A man's voice shouted.
They heard rapid footsteps behind them, so the students tried to run faster, while Iago tried to fly faster. None of them understood who was after them or why. All they knew was that they had to get back to Radiant Academy, and fast. To make things worse, Melody ended up tripping and fell to the ground, which Lea had noticed and was shocked when, as he did what he shouldn't have done, though he'd have to anyway since Melody fell, there were a group of men who looked organized like a bunch of criminals.
"Mel'!" Lea cried out, hesitating a bit, before making his decision and raced back to help his friend, also causing Isa, Myde and Iago to stop and they were shocked and horrified as by the time Lea went to help Melody up, two men, one with no hair, and another with black hair, roughly grabbed them by their arms and forced them up.
"Lea! Melody!" Isa cried out, attempting to race back, but was held back by Myde to prevent him from doing anything foolish.
Hearing his best friend's cry, Lea knew there was only one way to save him and Melody and called out, "Get outta here and get he-Mmph!" Lea was cut off when a gag was placed over his mouth, and his hands tied to his back, and as he struggled to squirm himself free, the redhead and Melody were dragged off towards a black car.
Getting the message, and, seeing how he can easily pin-point the number-plate on the car, Isa grunted, and nodded, before nodding to Myde and Iago, before all three of them took off back to Radiant Academy. Fortunately, since it was dark, it would take ages for the criminals to find the other three, and were busy hauling Lea and Melody into the back seat of a car, where an elderly man in glasses was also seated, hands also tied up. After that was done, the driver of the car then took off into the night.
Arriving at a hotel, Lea, Melody and the elder man were shoved and tied up into three chairs, as the leader of the group smirked and it was not a friendly smirk. The man with no hair, Victor, removed the gag from Lea who glared at the men.
"Well, well, well." Said the leader, named Ian Holwe, stepping closer to Lea. "I see you found one part of the treasure."
"What treasure?" Lea asked, adding, "Who're you guys anyway?"
Ian chuckled, "There's no need to bluff, boy. I know that you're with my old friend, Ben Gates. You have that medallion which is a clue to the greatest treasure in history."
"Actually, I was serious." Lea responded. "I have no idea what you're talkin' about. Though I have heard of the name Gates before. Isn't that the name of a family with some theory or whatever?"
"It's not a theory." Said the elder man tied up to a chair next to Lea, "And so you know, I'm Ben's father; Patrick Gates."
Lea blinked in surprise, before sighing, "Oh, okay then."
"Then how do you explain this Medallion, hmm?" Ian questioned dangerously, holding up the medallion that was found in the cave.
"Just found it in a cave." Lea replied, knowing that it was possibly more careful to tell the truth for now. Whatever these criminals wanted, he had a feeling that he, Melody and Patrick weren't getting out of this alive without help, and he hoped that Isa, Myde and Iago made it back to the Academy to call in the Turks.
"What were you doing in that cave?"
"Just hangin' out." Lea shrugged, "And just so you know, you didn't answer my question on who you guys are."
"I won't tell you if you tell me where the FBI and the Turks are with Ben." Ian warned.
The redhead fidgeted in his chair, uncomfortable and said again, as calmly as he could, as Tseng had taught him and Reno. "Look, man. I told you! I don't know any Ben! I was gonna hand over that medal to a museum since my friend and I have no clue on how it got into the cave in the first place! Besides, you can't use the two of us. We're students of Radiant Academy!"
"So I guess this medal is a bonus to the treasure." Ian sighed, realising that Lea was telling the truth, but then gave the teen a cruel smirk, and said, "But I don't think you and your girlfriend will be going back to the Academy and let you escape."
Lea's blood ran cold. Hostages or not, Ian was going to kill them. He had to hand it to this guy, Ian was smart. He already figured that if Lea and Melody were released, no doubt they would call in the Turks and the FBI and the leader clearly refuses to hand himself, and would gladly kill his hostages to get what he wants.
"...Are you gonna kill us?" Lea whispered, shivering a little.
"If I don't get the treasure, then yes...I will kill you." Ian whispered in a warning.
"Then just take me!" Lea pleaded, "Let Melody go! She has nothing to do with this!"
Melody gazed at her friend in shock, as her mouth was gagged as well. Lea was willing to risk his life to save her. It wouldn't make much of a difference, since Ian shook his head.
"Why? The little girl would end up calling up the cops as well." Ian pointed out. "Face it, boy. You're coming with me and you will stay with me until the end of your life or until I get my treasure." and with that, he and his men turned and left the room, locking it up and leaving the three hostages tied up in their chairs.
Once the criminals were gone, Lea swore to himself, "Gah, dammit! This is all my fault! If I hadn't ran out like that, none of this would've happened!" as tears of frustration began to leak from his eyes.
Melody was feeling the similiar guilt, as she thought to herself, 'I never shouldn't run out like that. What if I never see Ven again? And the last thing I said to him was mean...that I won't be able to tell him that I'm sorry.' as tears of guilt leaked from her eyes.
"Just face it, kids. We're hostages." Patrick sighed.
Lea glared at the elder man and snapped, "What do you know, old man!? What the hell's goin' on!?"
"My son, Ben." Patrick began, "He's always been wanting to find the treasure his grandfather told him about when he was a young boy. A treasure beyond all imagination. I never believed it, but what was I supposed to do to a groan man like my son? He stole the Declaration of Independence, stole my car, and asked me to give him the letters which I donated. Now Ian took me as a hostage just to force Ben to get to the treasure."
The redhead paused, taking in the information, before asking, "But I don't get why this treasure is so important? And what does the Declaration have anything to do with it?"
"Apparently on the back of it, there is an invisible map written in invisible ink leading to the treasure." Patrick sighed.
"An invisible map on the back of it?" Lea blinked, before rolling his eyes, "Gimme a break. That's the lamest thing I've ever heard."
"Well, you'd better get used to it, because we're pretty much stuck like this." Patrick gurmbled, before asking, "So, what's your name?"
"I'm Lea, and this is my friend, Melody. Got it memorized?" Lea answered, and would've tapped the side of his head if his hands weren't tied up at the back of the uncomfortable chair. Melody nodded a greeting of an awkward hello since she couldn't say anything at the moment.
None of them knew what would happen next.
Back at the Academy, everyone noticed that four students and a bird were missing, and no matter how hard they looked, Lea, Isa, Myde and Melody could not be found, and they were getting worried. Ven was nervously fiddling with Melody's locket, and Reno was a nervous wreck, pacing back and forth, worrying about Lea.
"Where could they be? I hope nothing terrible happened to them." Aqua said worriedly, as Terra rubbed her arms to calm her down, though he knew that it wasn't helping much, as he was worried as well.
"Oh, don't worry, I'm sure they're just taking a detour or-"
"That's the fifth time you said 'don't worry', Mushu!" Ven cuts Mushu off and finally at breaking point. "That's it, I'm gonna go out and find them!"
"Yeah, me too!" Reno agreed, "I'm gonna call Tseng and ask him to help us find-"
"Lea and Melody are captured by bad guys!" Iago's voice suddenly cuts the redhead off, as Iago, along with Isa and Myde all quickly ran over, passing other students, and stopping at Reno, Ven, Rude, Terra, Aqua, Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Genie and Mushu who were stunned at at least three of their friends's return, but the absence of Lea and Melody worried them.
"It's all my fault!" Myde was hysterically saying, a little too quickly, "The five of us were in a cave in the woods outside of town, and I saw something and I said, "I wonder what that is?", and the others said, "What?", so I tried to stop them, but they went in, found a medallion, and when we were on our way back, some bad guys were chasing us and grabbed Lea and Melody, telling us to run and to get help!"
Even though none of them really got on what Myde was saying, it became clear that Lea and Melody were in trouble.
"I remember the number-plate of the car the guys that took Lea and Melody." Isa added. "We have to call the Turks to save them!"
"And uh, that's what happened." Iago concluded.
Even Mushu realised that it was trouble, and admitted to Ven and Reno, "I think it's time to worry now, guys."
"Isa, write down the number-plate!" Ven told the blue-haired teen who nodded, before racing to find a pen and a piece of paper, before the blonde-haired teen turned to Reno and told him, "Reno, call the Turks!"
"You got it!" Reno nodded, pulling out his PHS that all students from the age of ten are allowed to use in case of emergencies and dialed Tseng's number.
"Genie, we need to locate that car that took Lea and Melody!" Ven at last told his blue magical friend who turned himself into a soldier and saluted.
"Ven, are you sure we can find the people who kidnapped Melody and Lea?" Mickey asked, worriedly. "They could be anywhere."
"I don't care." Ven shook his head, "We have to save them before it's too late."
"Ven's right. We'd better get a move on." Terra agreed.
"I'll roast those whoever bad guys are into a Mongolian barbeque!" Mushu said with determination.
"Ah, maybe I should just stay out of it." Iago said nervously, only to be grabbed by the tail by Donald.
"Oh no you don't!" said Donald.
"You know, you're right, Ven!" Mickey decided, after thinking about it for a moment. "We'd gotta save our friends!"
It didn't take long for Ven and his group to meet outside with Tseng and the Turks, and soon they were off to find Lea and Melody and rescue them.
At midday the next day, Lea, Melody and Patrick were once again in the car, held hostage as Ian went to speak to Ben who had been arrested by the FBI before escaping, and now all of them were inside Trinity Church in the nearby town, and the trio were walking with Ben who was holding a cynlinder tube with the Decorlation within it.
"Are you three alright?" Ben whispered.
"Do we look alright to you?" Lea groaned.
"Lea and I weren't even supposed to be here." Melody added, "I never should've ran off like I did."
"Yeah, same here." Lea sighed.
"Apart from the two kids, what do you think about me?" Patrick asked sarcastically, "We're hostages." before he and the two students were forced to take seats on the pews, and watched carefully by four of Ian's goons.
"Let them go, Ian." Ben told the thug leader.
"When we find the treasure." Ian told him firmly.
Ben glared at him, "No, now! Or you can figure out the clues yourself."
However, Ian had another idea and he refused to let the hostages go, and said to the other man, smirking an evil grin, "Ben, I don't think you fully appreciate the gravity of the situation." and turned just as two of his goons were leading a youngerish man named Riley Pool, and a woman named Abigail Chase, forcing them at the seats as well, next to Melody and Lea, which forced Ben to help Ian read the map with a pair of glasses that were like the first version of 3D glasses.
"What are you two doing here?" Abigail asked, shocked.
"Kidnapped for some stupid reason." Lea whispered, "They probably think that Mel' and I are some use, while were both students of Radiant Academy."
"It was really our fault for leaving the school grounds and get caught in this situation." Melody added.
"Kidnapping students just to find the treasure is really low." Riley grumbled, "But knowing Ian, he likes to shoot people."
'If we get out of this, I'm in serious trouble.' Lea thought to himself, hoping that Isa, Myde and Iago managed to call the Turks to find them. The next thing he knew, he, Melody, Abigail and Riley were being shoved and pushed towards a small pair of stars, following Ian and Ben towards the back of the church and into a boiler room of some sorts.
Lea ended up with Ben and Patrick who whispered to the two younger men, "Look, cooperation only lasts as long as the status quo remains unchanged. As soon as this guy gets to where this thing ends, he won't need any of us anymore."
"So we find a way to make sure the status quo changes in our favor." Ben whispered back.
"And how're we gonna do that?" Lea asked, "In case you haven't noticed, these guys are dangerous and they'll kill us at a moments notice."
"I'm still working on it." was Ben's answer.
The redhead sighed, before mumbling, "Guess that means I'd better work on it too. Bad situation for a future Turk."
Melody was forced to look for this "Parkington Lane", whatever that was. It wasn't until she noticed the words, or rather, the name on a tombstone on the wall, before calling out, "Hey! Guys! I think this is it...or him!" which had everyone gather around as Melody moved out of the way and towards Lea who protectively had his arms around her to keep her safe.
In an instant, Shaw and Victor both smashed the tombstone into pieces, and pulled out a coffen with the aid of Ben and Shippen, before carefully placing it onto the floor. Within the hole, was a tunnel leading into a dark place, making both Riley and Lea nervous.
"Okay, who wants to go down the creepy tunnel inside the tomb first?" Riley asked. Lea had to stop himself from laughing, as he could hear the slight humor in Riley's tone.
Ian had Victor and another guy say behind, while he, Shaw, Shippen, Ben, Abigail, Riley, Patrick, Melody and Lea crawl inside the tunnel which soon opened to a larger tunnel. It was dark, but Ben and Ian found a torch and lit it up with a lighter. The place clearly hasn't been touched in several centuries, as spider webs covered the area. The group stepped carefully, though Lea and Melody both caught Ben pulling Abigail into a kiss which was short, but the two students turned so that neither of the adults would notice that two of the kids watching.
"Why does that never happen to me?" Shippen asked, his voice morose.
Lea grinned and couldn't help but tease to Shippen, "Because you're a loser, that's why." lightly chuckling as the older man glared at him. Melody softly giggled as well.
Eventually, the group reached the end of the tunnel, arriving in a larger room with a winding staircase leading down. Ben lit up the fire-trail, and from the looks of things, the place looked like they were inside a giant chandelier.
"Whoa..." Lea said, admittedly amazed.
"Wow..." Melody thought, stunned. "I've never seen anything like this before."
"Same here, Mel'." Lea agreed.
"Look at the elevators." Ben mustered.
"A dumbwaiter system." Ian added.
Shippen was confused, as he asked incredulously, "How do a bunch of guys with hand tools build all this?"
Lea shrugged, "Maybe the same way the Great Wall of China was built?"
"And the pyramids." Ben agreed.
"Yeah, the aliens helped them." Riley said sarcastically.
Lea couldn't help but snicker in laughter and told the man who said that, "You really have a knack for sarcasm, don'tcha?" which made Melody giggle silently, even in a bad situation.
Ian wasn't in the mood for jokes and firmly handed the flaming torch to Patrick and told him, "Alright, let's go. What are you waiting for?"
"I-I'm not going out on that thing." Patrick blanched, gazing at the aged old wood, "200 years of damage and rot."
"You'd better do what he says." Lea quickly cautioned. He knew for once that if anyone disobeyed the criminals in a hostage situation, the hostages would no doubt die and would pay the heavy price for it. As far as Ian was concerned, safety was the very last thing in the back of his mind. All he cared about was getting the treasure for himself.
Realising that the redhead, while just a teenager, was right, Patrick carefully started down the stairs withour futher complaint. Soon everyone else formed a single-file line behind the man, while careful in avoiding the missing board by passing over it. Lea kept Melody as close as possible, while silently praying that Isa, Myde and Iago made it back to Radient Academy to call for help. With any luck, the Turks were searching for them right now. Though here was doubt in the back of his mind that they wouldn't find Lea or Melody on time, but he mentally told that little annoying voice in his head to shut up.
Just then everything shook around them slightly, causing them to hold on to the banister as the shaking increased then decreased and finally went away. "What was that?" Melody asked, eyes widening.
"Subway," Ian said, a smirk on his face. Lea glared at him, not finding this amusing what so ever. If anything, it would've caused either one of them or Odin forbid, all of them to go crashing down and the 200 year old wood breaking easily which would easily result them to their deaths.
It was there and then that Murphy's Law intervened, because the moment Shaw took another step, the wood beneath him gave way instantly and he went plummeting down, causing everyone else to stop once they saw what just happened, with Abigail and Melody shouting in alarm and all of Shaw's companions, including Ian, horrified.
"Oh god, Shaw!" Ian shouted, horrified at the loss of one of his men who continued to crash through another path of wood before Shaw disappeared into the darkness below and his screams fading away. Lea had to hold Melody from the sight while shutting his eyes tightly at the scene. It was one of the hardships that could possibly happen in his future career as a Turk, but that didn't mean he had to like it.
Just then the entire thing started to shake before stopping, but at the time everyone knew that the stairs were starting to collaspe and if they didn't do something quick, they would all quickly share Shaw's fate.
"Hold on! Hold on!" Ben shouted.
Lea then noticed one of the elevators and screamed out, "Get on the elevator! Jump, quick!" instantly Ian jumped on, followed by Shippen, then Patrick. But before Lea and Melody could go the same, the stairway gave another shudder. Without much choice, Lea knew what he had to do and quickly tossed his friend onto the elevator where she landed and Patrick quickly grabbed onto her before she could fall.
Lea meanwhile, wasn't so lucky as he was forced to jump onto another set of stairs, before jumping again as quickly as he could where Riley was that was more stable. The redhead looked around as the entire stairwell started to collaspe and to his horror, he noticed Ben holding onto Abigail who dangled on the edge before he swung her over and dropped her onto another more stable set of stairs. Ben in the meantime rolled over and grabbed the Declaration as it nearly fell.
Thinking quickly, Lea ran as fast as he could and just before Ben could fall to his death, once the older man nearly passed the railing, Lea grabbed hold of his hand while paying that the railing wouldn't break underneath him. Abigail thankfully came up and helped him pull Ben up who scrambled onto the platform with them. Lea panted.
"Y-you okay?" Lea panted, relieved at the close call. For once in his life, he was so glad to be fast and wasn't too late. He really needed to work on his stamia.
"Yeah. Thanks, kid." Ben nodded, before saying to Abigail, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry I dropped you. I had to save the Declaration."
Abigail shook her head and told him, "No, don't be. I would've done the same thing do you."
"Really?" Ben blinked, amazed.
Riley came over towards them as he stated while grumbling what the crazy stunt he just witnessed, "I would have dropped all three of you. Freaks." which made Lea roll his eyes at this.
At this point, Ian and the others stopped the elevator at their level, as he told them, "Get on."
"Ian... it's not worth it." Ben spoke slowly, clearly trying to talk his way out of this situation, especially with what happened to Shaw and that there could be more deaths if this happened again.
One of Ian's eyebrows's raised, clearly too stubborn and willing to take more risks of his hostages more as he said to Ben, "Do you imagine any one of your lives is more valuable to me than Shaw's? We go on."
Lea had to refrain himself from yelling, especially when Patrick said to both him and Ben in a whisper, "The status quo. Keep the status quo." while Melody casted a vaguely scared look in her eyes. Lea's own eyes gazed deeply into his friend's, which translated, 'I try to figure something out.'
Ven and the rest of his friends had voulenteered to join the search in rescuing Lea and Melody from the thugs which they now understood was Ian Howe, a wanted criminal in con artist skills and demanding things he wanted, according to Tseng who, along with Balto, searched around for the car that matched the number plate Isa memorized.
Genie was zipping and checking one car after another through Radiant City, until finally, he spotted it at the most unlikely place out.
So through a walkie talkie he made for himself and Ven, he contaced his friend.
"Genie, do you have something?" Ven asked from the Wi-Fi line.
"I sure do, Ven." Genie replied, "I found the car, and you wouldn't believe where."
"Well, where is it and where are you?" Ven asked, almost urgently.
"Outside Trinity Church!" Genie answered.
From inside the van the Turks were driving in, Ven quirked an eyebrow as he repeated, dumbfounded, "Trinity Church?" and Reno, Rude, Isa, Terra, Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Aqua, Iago, Myde, and even Balto and Tseng all quirked eyebrows when they listened in the conversation.
"You must be joking." Iago grumbled. "Why would any bad guy would want to go hide out inside a church of all places?"
Reno, who became more and more increasingly worried for his cousin, added, "And why would this Ian guy wanna take Lea and Melody in the first place?"
"I'm sure we'll find out. In the meantime, we must be in high alert." Tseng spoke as he drove, determined to rescue the hostages while being careful on the situation.
It wasn't long before the group met up with Genie and would infiltrate Trinity Church.
At last, Lea and the others reached the bottom of the shaft as the elevator slowed to a stop. Soon, everyone stepped off and onto the platform, with Ben taking the lead. However, when the group entered a single room...it was just empty.
"So uh, what's this?" Lea asked, wondering why this room was completely empty. Something seemed off.
"Well?" Ian demanded to Ben.
Ben didn't answer as he kept quiet as he looked around the room. It seemed that he was in a major disappointment.
"This is it?" Riley asked, dumbfounded, before he demanded, "We came all this way for a dead end?"
"Yes." Ben sighed. But by the way he was reacting, Lea's brows furrowed suspiciously. Something seemed weird with this guy. Ben never striked him as a person to give up so easily ever since coming to this church.
"There's gotta be something more." Riley insisted.
"Riley, there's nothing more." Ben stated.
Melody then suggested, "Maybe there's another clue around-"
"No, there are no more clues!" Ben began to shout, startling Melody, Lea and Riley. "That's it, OK? It's over! End of the road. The treasure's gone. Moved. Taken somewhere else."
But Ian wasn't taking it, as he moved towards Ben, and demanded, "You're not playing games with me, are you Ben? You know where it is."
"No." Ben simply replied after a long pause.
After a moment, and having come to a decision, Ian nodded to Shippen towards the elevator and the two men quickly started back towards it, much to everyone else's shock. They started to follow to the elevator, but Ian already started it and only stopped it as soon as it was far enough away from the room so that no one else could climb onto it.
"Hey, what're you doing!?" Lea cried out.
"We'll be trapped!" Abigail added.
"You can't just leave us here!" Melody insisted.
Ian smirked, and said in a tone that clearly told them he didn't care what happened to them and that he had intended on having both Melody and Lea murdered either way anyway, "Yes I can. Unless Ben tells me the next clue."
"There isn't another clue." Ben said slowly, as though it would help Ian understand.
"Ian, why don't you come back down here and we can talk through this toget-" Riley was cut off when Lea elbowed him in the ribs.
At the older man's questioning look, Lea told him since he could just picture Ian taking out a gun, so the teenager told him, "It's best to keep your mouth shut before he decides to kill us right here."
"Okay." Riley quickly agreed.
Ian had made a move to bring out his gun, but stopped when Lea had told Riley to shut up before the former really did bring out his weapon. However, he tempted to do so as he spoke to Ben again, "The clue. Where's the treasure?"
"The lantern." Patrick spoke.
Everyone turned their gaze at the oldest man in the group, and Lea whispered in a warning, "Mr. Gates...!"
"The status quo as changed." Patrick whispered to the teen. Despite Lea's warning, he continued as he gazed at Ian, "It's part of freemason teachings. In King Solomon's temple there was a winding staircase. It signified the journey that had to be made to find the light of truth. The lantern is the clue."
"What does it mean?" Ian asked.
"Boston." Ben answered, following his father's bluff. "It's Boston."
Patrick continued, "The Old North Church in Boston, where Thomas Newton hung a lantern in the steeple, to signal Paul Revere that the British were coming. One if by land, two if by sea. One lantern. Under the winding staircase of the steeple, that's where we have to look."
Despite this, Ian just said, "Thank you." before starting up the elevator again before the others could hitch a ride on it.
"Wait a minute, you have to take us with you!" Lea protested.
"Why?" Ian grinned. "So you could escape in Boston? Did you really think you and your little girlfriend were going back to the Academy, boy? You're never going back there, and you will never, ever, see your family again."
Lea's blood ran so cold he was certain he would just die just by standing at the very spot. Why was Ian so cold against the students of Radiant Academy?
"I know that you're training to become a Turk, and I cannot let that happen. One less Turk to worry about." Ian continued, as he shrugged a single shoulder, "Besides, with you out of the picture there's less baggage to carry."
"But-what if there's another clue?" Lea blurted out, despite Ben and Patrick's warning stares from their eyes.
Ian paused, before saying dangerously and lowly, "Then I'll know where to find you. So enjoy your little prison, former student of Radiant Academy." before turning the elevator on again. "See you, Ben."
"No!" Ben shouted.
"Stop, don't do this!" Lea cried out.
"Come back!" Melody cried out.
But it was too late. The elevator was gone. Lea felt like kicking himself for his own stupidy. He nearly sobbed in frustration, until Melody gently held his arm in her hands to try and comfort him, despite that they and the others with them would all most likely die here in this place.
"We're all gonna die." Riley stated, somberly.
Ben shook his head and said, "It's gonna be okay." before apologising to both Riley and Melody, "I'm sorry I yelled at both of you."
He and Patrick then both went to the back of the room and started to examine the walls, much to the confusion of everyone else who joined them halfway since there wasn't anywhere else to go.
"Alright, what's going on?" Lea demanded.
"The British came by sea. It was two lanterns, not one." Abigail added and pointed out.
Lea then realised what happened and nearly smacked himself, before stating, "In order to prevent Ian from killing us, even though it backfired since they hoped he would take us with him, they gave him a clue since he wanted one."
"It was a fake clue." Melody realised, her eyes widening.
Even Riley realised it and began to babble, "That means... by the time Ian figures it out and comes back here, we'll still be trapped, and he'll shoot us then. Either way, we're gonna die." his voice got more and more despondent as he kept speaking.
"Nobody's gonna die." Ben spoke. "There's another way out."
Everyone blinked in confusion, as Melody asked, "Where? The staircase is gone."
Ben answered with a knowing smile, "Through the treasure room." as he pushed a switch of some kind and in an instant, there was a loud crack and the wall cracked open. Everyone's eyes widened, as Lea, seeing what was happening, rushed over to help Ben and Patrick push the door open.
Once that was done, everyone slowly stepped into the room after Ben stepped in first. Lea and Melody both looked around, eagerly expecting to see the treasure, and found themselves in confused disappointment when this room was empty as well. Where was it?
"Looks like somebody got here first." Riley spoke, in disappointment.
"I'm sorry, Ben." Abigail sighed.
Ben was in disappointed disbelief, sounding despondent as he said, "It's gone."
When Patrick started to talk, Ben just continued as though he didn't hear the former, "It may have even been gone before Charles Carroll told the story to Thomas Gates." before turning to his father and said, "You were right."
"No, I wasn't right." Patrick shook his head, which came as a surprise since he didn't admit he was wrong that easily. "This room is real, Ben. And that means the treasure is real. We're in the company of some of the most brilliant minds in history, because you found what they left behind for us to find and understood the meaning of it. You did it, Ben. For all of us. Your grandfather, and all of us. And I've never been so happy to be proven wrong."
Taking in his father's words, Ben sighed, disappointed. "I just... really thought I was gonna find the treasure."
"Okay." Patrick began. "Then we just keep looking."
"I'm in." Abigail agreed.
"Me too." Lea decided to say. "And if you like, Mel' and I've got best friends and a cousin that could more than happily help out." with a slight smile, and Melody nodded in agreement.
On the other hand, Riley then spoke up which made everyone else turn to face him, "Not to be Johnny Rain Cloud here, but that's not gonna happen. As far as I can see, we're still trapped."
"Oh, right." Lea mumbled. He did want to help look for the treasure, but he just realised that he forgot that there was still no way out. So, he asked, "He has a point. So uh, where's the back door exit?"
"Well, that's it. It doesn't make any sense, because the first thing the builders would have done after getting down here was cut a secondary shaft back out for air...and in case of cave-ins." Ben walked around the room again, looking closely at the walls. Finally he stopped, staring at a particular part of the wall.
"Could it really be that simple?" Ben's voice was quiet but in the silence Lea could hear him even all the way across the room. "The secret lies with Charlotte." He fumbled around in his jacket and brought out the pipe from the Charlotte.
Suddenly, the wall cracked open. Everyone stood in awe, before looking at each other and then ventured into another room. What they found astonded them. All around them, was the treasure itself beyond imagining. Their eyes widended in disbelief. Gold, jewels, ancient statues, medallions, scrolls, everything from history.
"Whoa..." Lea gapped, his mouth hanging open in disbelief. He then asked, wanting to be certain, "Are you guys having the same dream I am?"
He didn't get an answer, since Riley's eyes welled up in tears as he noticed something very emotional, resulting Abigail to ask, in slight amusement at the man's weakness, "Riley, are you crying?"
"Look." Riley choaked. "Stairs." Everyone else looked up and all smiled in relief.
"Looks like we found our back door." Lea sighed in relief.
As the other two minions waited for the return of Ian and the other two, seconds later before they both tempted to go in themselves, their team arrived. Or at least, Ian and Shippen did. Ben and the others were absent.
"Where's Shaw?" One of them asked.
Ian shook his head, muttering, "He's dead. Along with all others. But we do know where to find the treasure."
He paused, before smirking, "We go to Boston tonight."
However, before they could even make a move, all of the sudden they found themselves chained up together and tied up instantly, being forced to be sat on the floor, grunting in shock and confusion, wondering what was going on. Their answer was revealed as Genie appeared out of nowhere, grinning as he dusted his hands off at another job well done.
"Going somewhere, boys?" Genie joked.
"A genie?" Ian asked, shocked.
"And not just any genie." Genie grinned, as Iago flew in.
"Nya nya nya nya nya nya!" Iago taunted as he landed onto the floor while glaring up at the villians that were chained up, as Ven, Reno, Terra, Rude, Aqua, Myde, Isa, Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Tseng and Balto all arrived, having waited for the signal and now the group surrounded the criminals.
Realising that the two other students he imprisoned with Ben and the others, Ian scowled in anger, while Tseng spoke to him coldly, "You're under arrest, Mr. Howe. For kidnapping, attempted murder, and trespassing on government property."
"Before my future boss gets to take you in," Reno spoke up to Ian as he approached the latter, glaring coldly that he hardly did around his friends. "You tell us where your hostages are, or you'll be in a great pain of suffering."
"Uh, Reno? You're kind of scarying me." Myde shuddered slightly.
"It's part of of the job." Isa sighed.
Ian glared at the redhead who shared identical looks to the one trapped in the shaft. "You the brother of one of them? Because you look just like him." he said, ignoring the question, much to Reno's anger.
"He's my cousin." Reno growled lowly. "Where is he?"
Again, Ian didn't answer and said, "What's the matter? Never see him again?" smirking.
Deep down, Reno's blood ran cold. In fact, his friends probably went pale as well by hearing this. In the end, he couldn't keep in his anger and punched Ian squarely in the face, winching a little as the numbness when his knuckles stinged a little when they met Ian's nose which now bled and his eye which now had a deep black and purple bruise. Rude and Balto quickly went to restrain Reno from doing any more damage, while everyone else, even Tseng, glared coldly at Ian.
"How could you?" Ven demanded to Ian, shaken as he realised what the criminal had said. Deep down, he felt terrible guilt. Melody and Lea...they were gone.
However, before anyone else could say anything else or even upgrade Ian's arrest from attempted murder to murder, just then the other grave behind Genie made cracking noises, and everyone turned their attention to this. The wall continue to crack, and instantly the students of the Academy began to panic, while Iago was freaking out.
"A ghost!" Donald screamed.
"A Mummy!" Goofy screamed, quickly clinging onto Donald who clinged onto him.
"Uh...do tombs usually do that?" Mickey asked, scaredly.
"No." Ven, Terra and Aqua all replied, having freaked out expressions themselves.
Finally, the wall cracked open, and instead of either a ghost or a mummy as the group were expecting, instead, to their confusion and Ian's shock, it was Ben who coughed a little. When he saw the group, he greeted casually, as though nothing out of the ordinary happened, "Hi."
"Uh, hi." Terra greeted in return, awkwardly.
Ben, seeing the two Turks, asked, "Do either of you have a cell phone I can borrow?" as he stepped out and helped Patrick out, then Abigail, then Riley, and then finally, to the rest of the group's relief and amazement, Lea and Melody, all of the group who were just inside the shaft slightly covered in cobweb.
"Okay, that's it. I'm going crazy over over here!" Iago panicked, shaking his head while attempting to seemingly wake himself up from a dream, except that this was real.
Reno's eyes welled up in tears as the sight of his cousin nearly overwhelmed him. After a moment, he went over to Lea who saw that help has finally arrived and smiled in return, though awkwardly since he had a lot of explaining to do.
"Uh, hey...whoa!" Lea was startled as Reno nearly crushed him in a hug.
"Don't you ever scare me like that again!" Reno nearly sobbed. "I was so worried."
Realising that he had Reno very worried, Lea opted to embrace his cousin in return and muttered, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry for getting mad at you."
Reno sniffled, unable to find his voice.
"Ven!" Melody cried out happily as she ran over to Ven who caught her in his arms and the two embraced happily.
"Melody! You're okay!" Ven said.
"Lea and Melody are safe! Lea and Melody are safe!" Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Isa and Myde all cheered happily in relief, while Aqua and Terra both sighed in great relief.
Tseng then turned to the dumdstruck Ian and said, "Definate attempted murder, hm? Lea is more smarter than you think, as a future member of the Turks, along with his cousin and their friends."
"I hate Radiant Academy." Ian groaned.
"Melody..." Ven began as he and Melody let each other go. "I uh...I wanted to apologuise about yesterday."
Quickly realising what Ven meant, the half-mermaid shook her head, and said, "I'm the one who should apologuise, Ven. I'm sorry for getting mad at you. It's just...complicated."
"It's okay. Still, I'm sorry." Ven replied, smiling warmly.
Reno in the meantime, apologuised to Lea, "I'm sorry for not realising that you don't need my protection. I was an idiot."
"It's cool. I'm sorry too." Lea replied, "So, no hard feelings?"
The other redhead chuckled, and said, "No hard feelings. Growing up really sucks."
Mickey and the rest of their friends all smiled, glad that Lea and Melody were safe and they, Reno and Ven had made up so quickly.
So, after the Turks took Ian and his minions into prison, Ben had called in the FBI and informed them about what happened, which in the end had Ben, Abigail, Riley and Patrick pardoned and they, along with Lea and Melody, were given credit to discovering the treasure that would soon be put into museums all over the world since it belonged to the world. Lea and the others got off fairly easy when they returned to the Academy and only had just one hour of Xehanort's lecture, which was a world record in history with the elderly man.
Melody still had some things to worry about with the merpeople's King to hopefully get him to understand her desires to remain on land while visiting the seas secretly, but once she told Ven and the others this, they all promised to help her along the way to prove to the merpeople that humans were not that much different. Melody was glad to have her friends by her side.
In the meantime, Lea and Reno made up and continued training with their best friends, and soon enough, things started to improve further, especially when Lea revealed that he saved Ben and the Decloration of Indepence earlier.
Soon things returned to normal in Radient Academy...Well, Radient Academy normal anway, since normal pretty much didn't much exist these days.
To be Continued...
A/N: Again, I am terribly sorry for the long delay. So I made this chapter longer to make up for it. Hope you're not mad at me for delaying this for so long. Speaking of delays, I am not impressed with Tabata and Nomura delaying FFXV and KH2.8 like they did. But that's just me, so I'll be ranting for a while until I buy Ice Age: Collision Course on DVD next month.
Please look forward to the next episode as soon as I'm able, but in the meantime, I'll be working on other stories or starting up new ones...again.