A/N - Heyy there guys. I'm so sorry with how long it's been since I last updated, it's just I've had quite a busy schedule XD I've just finished my last year at college, so you know, revision and exams and stuff. Anywhoo, here is the long awaited chapter fourteen :) Hope you enjoy xx
Chapter Fourteen: The Truth
The Laytonmobile came to a steady halt outside the darkened alleyway. Cautiously, we got out of the vehicle and stood, looking through the shadowed walk way. This was it. Finally, the mystery of the past few days would be unraveled before us. The reason for Flora's fake death, the reason for her robot replica, we could now interrogate Bruno for the answers we needed. I looked up at the Professor stood beside me. His eyes read determination, dauntlessness, but with that tiny flicker of fear.
"What do you think we'll find down there, Hershel?" I asked, my eyes now back to the alleyway, "Why would Bruno do all this?"
"If what Luke told us was true, then it was mere angst against the villagers of St. Mystere. But why he'd go to these extreme lengths, we've yet to find out."
Luke... My thoughts began to wonder.
"Come on, my dear," the Professor said, holding his elbow out for me to hold. I took it gently, then we began our way through the alleyway. The deeper we ventured down, the darker it became, and my grip on the Professors arm grew ever more tighter. Our footsteps echoed around us, creating an eerie air. When the alleyway finally came to an end, we were greeted with a tall metallic door. The Professor tried its huge handle, but to our dismay, it was locked. Something on the door caught my eye.
"Hershel, look!" I exclaimed, pointing. A complex looking grid was built into the door, with nine small buttons underneath. On the buttons, were the numbers one to nine. On the grid itself, there were several numbers scattered around, numbers between one and nine. Where there weren't numbers, there were just blank spaces.
"Why Victoria, I believe this is a Sudoku puzzle," the Professor explained, "My guess is that Bruno built this as a way of keeping people away. The sudoku is built into the locking system, meaning that unless you can solve the puzzle, you can't get in. That must also mean that Luke was able to solve it himself."
I looked at the sudoku. The objective of the puzzle was to fill the nine by nine grid with digits so that each row, each column and each of the three by three sub-grids contained the numbers one to nine.
"Do you mind if I take a crack at this?" I asked.
"Go ahead, my dear," the Professor replied.
The sudoku started off fairly easy. Using the buttons, I punched in the obvious numbers into their spaces. But as it got harder, I knew I needed strategy.
I'll start with the number ones, that might be easier.
However, there were still some that I wasn't one hundred percent were correct. There were still some missing numbers keeping me from knowing that the ones were in the right places.
Okay, how about looking at individual rows or columns? If most of them are filled, then there's limited numbers that can go there.
Almost immediately, I was finding the puzzle easier.
Wow, this is certainly different. Usually you're mocking me, not helping.
I blinked.
Don't get used to it.
I punched in the the last number of the grid. From behind the door, there was a clanking noise, then the sound of the lock unlatching. The Professor tried the door once more, and this time was able to open it.
"Very well done, young miss," he praised, lightly kissing my cheek.
"Thanks..." I managed to say through my blush.
Behind the door was a stone spiral staircase, small lanterns upon the walls. Without hesitation we began our ascent up the stairs. With each step, I found my breath becoming shorter. Whatever was at the top of these stairs would show us the truth. My mind began to wonder about the possibilities.
Would Luke be okay? What if Bruno had got to him first? Was he working alone, or did he have accomplices?
A wooden door was awaiting us at the top of the stairs. It was only a small door, not like the one before, and this one didn't seem to have any sort of lock on it. From beyond the door, we could hear voices, voices from two people to be exact. One was very heavily muffled, like something was stopping them from talking. The other voice was very familiar; a young voice, high pitched, like a boy.
"It's Luke!" the Professor exclaimed, then almost instantly pushed open the door and ran inside.I followed closely behind, then halted at the sight that was bestowed before us. Inside it was a dark room, the walls and floor a black stone material. On the floor, was a large wooden circle on hinges, like a door that headed downwards. Hanging from the ceiling were heavy chains. The whole room resembled a torture chamber, but the rustiness of it suggested it hadn't been used in a while. But the room aside, what stood before us was what we were looking at. Bruno was sat on the floor, knees into his chest, with thick rope tied around his body. He was also gagged with a handkerchief. Stood beside him was a very proud looking Luke, arms folding with a smirk on his face.
"Luke, my boy! You managed to catch Bruno!" the Professor said, surprised.
"There was nothing to it, Professor," Luke replied, a hint of cockiness in his voice, "Quite simple actually."
"Erm, is the rope really necessary though?" I asked, raising an eyebrow to the terrified looking Bruno, "We need to talk to him, not capture him!"
"Yeah, well, this was to make sure he didn't get away," Luke said matter-of-factly.
"Well, that's all well and good," the Professor said, making his way over to Bruno, "Now, lets get this gag off you, and you can explain to us exactly why you've done all this."
The Professor extended his hand towards Bruno, whose muffled voice was getting louder, as if he were eager to talk. His fingers brushed against the handkerchief, and suddenly Luke hit the Professors hand away using his fist.
"No!" Luke exclaimed, "I mean, not here! We should...go to Scotland Yard, or something, have the police interrogate him..."
The Professor stood dumbfounded, holding his clenched hand in the other, as if the blow from Luke hurt him. Luke was now heading towards the door, to which I stopped him, using a tight grip on his arm.
"Victoria, let go of me," he said firmly, trying to wriggle his arm free.
"I don't think so," I answered, shoving him back towards the room, "Not until you tell us who are."
"What? I'm Luke, silly. Luke Triton!"
"Victoria, what are you saying?" the Professor turned to me.
"I'm saying that him there, in front of us, isn't Luke Triton," I explained, beginning to pace the room, "My first inkling was when you, Hershel, showed me the leaving notes that Luke and Flora supposedly wrote for you. The notes were simply addressed to 'Layton', weren't they?"
I stopped for a moment, eyes sternly on Luke, "Someone who respects Hershel as much as you do wouldn't casually address him by his last name, but with his title too."
Luke's eye twitched, and he clenched both of his fists.
"And today even, opening this door to find you standing beside Bruno tied up like that. You say you were the one that tied him up. But how is it, a child as young as you, was able to tie up a fully grown man, without any sort of help?"
Luke began to grit his teeth.
"But the main suspicion, the one that got me thinking the most, was when I first met you, merely a day ago. What was it you said? "Tea, I love it!" Yes, I believe it was. Now if I'm correct, Luke Triton doesn't like tea very much, in fact he only drinks it if it's sweetened to his liking. So exclaiming that you love tea, well, that's just out of character, isn't it?"
"My..." the Professor managed to say, "Victoria, you are most correct in your findings."
Luke's face contorted with anger. He then grabbed his hair, and began into fits of manic laughter, most evil and disturbed. The grip on his hair grew tighter, and with one swift movement, he pulled. What appeared to be his clothes and skin flew off of his body, then scattered across the room. Stood in front of us, his disguise removed, was Don Paolo.
"Paul?" the Professor questioned, "You're behind all this?"
"Christ Layton, it took you long enough!" Don Paolo spat, "Who else would it have been? Who else swears revenge on you and meddles with your life?"
"But those months ago, the fake London...I thought we'd resolved everything?"
"It takes more than a mere acquaintance to heal a broken heart."
Claire again...I thought, She must have been quite the woman with all these men fighting over her.
"For goodness sake Paul, that was the past!" the Professor hollered, "Never mind about all that. Where are Luke and Flora? Why did you take them?"
"Yeah, you really think stealing children will make things better?" I questioned.
Don Paolo began to chuckle, eyeing up me and the Professor in turn.
"Fine, fine. I'll spell it out for you," he said petulantly, "Layton, I can never forgive you for taking Claire, when it was I who loved her. So my plan? To make you feel the loneliness and hurt that I did. I began with your little brats that follow you around. That was easy enough, but then came to predicament of concealing it. Triton was fine, I was able to disguise as him with ease, but I couldn't be both of them..."
He walked slowly towards Bruno, nudging him with his foot.
"That's when I needed Bruno's help. Of course, he didn't consent to it, but still, kidnapping people comes naturally to me. I was able to make him construct a robot replica of the girl, complete with a self-malfunctioning system. With that, I was able to fake Flora's death. If you felt anything for that brat, that would have crushed you."
Don Paolo then walked away from Bruno, turning his back on us.
"But that wasn't enough. I needed something more..."
At that moment, he turned towards us. He put his hand into his pocket, and took out a stamp sized box. It appeared to be a small vocoder. He then latched it onto his throat.
"That's where you come in, 'Victoria'," he said, in a familiar, mechanic voice.
I gasped, my face distorting in horror.
"It...it was you?" I screeched, "You were the one that brought me here?"
"Victoria, do you know what he's talking about?" the Professor asked, confusion in his voice, "What does he mean, 'brought you here'?"
Once again, Don Paolo laughed manically, filling the whole room. I looked up at the Professor, searching for what to say.
"Yes indeed, she's not all that she appears to be, the one who calls herself Victoria," Don Paolo sniggered, "You see Hershel, she doesn't belong here. This isn't her reality. She's from an alternate world."
The Professor's face grew pale.
Damn you, Don Paolo...
"Victoria, as you so proudly call yourself, what was that you said earlier? Something about being out of character? Well, I'm not the only one telling lies, am I?"
My eyes grew wide, rabbit caught in the headlights.
"Layton, she told you she was twenty. Ha ha, try seventeen..."
"What?" the Professor exclaimed.
"And Victoria Belladonna? Far from her real name, isn't that right..."
"Stop it!" I cried out, my eyes glistening from the tears trying to force their way out, "Okay, whatever, I lied. Just tell me why you brought me here."
I turned away from Don Paolo, burying my face into the Professor's shoulder.
"Hershel.." I whispered, 'I'm so sorry, I..."
"It's okay, my dear," he whispered back, softly stroking my hair, "I'm sure you had your reasons."
"One reason; mind control," Don Paolo smirked, "After working out that puzzle, I told you that you were gonna fall in love on your adventure. So, your subconscious mind starting to do everything in its will to make sure that happened. Luckily, my plan worked, you ending up falling for Layton."
Suddenly, Don Paolo grabbed hold of my shoulder, yanking me away from the Professor. He then walked over to the hinged circle on the floor, throwing it open. The door opened to a deep pit, where at the bottom, sat an array of sharp objects. They appeared long and pointed, like a javelin pole, all pointing upwards.
"See this pit, Layton?" he spat, "Very painful if anyone were to fall down there. So now, you must make a choice. Who would you rather keep alive; your young lover, the one whom you've created an bond of affection with, or..."
He then walked over to a chain hanging from the ceiling, dragging me with him. He pulled on it fiercely. The ceiling opened, and a small cage fell down from it, still attached to the chain, stopping at the opening of the pit. Inside, unmistakably, were Luke and Flora, both screaming for help.
No...
"Would you rather keep these two brats alive? The ones that helped you with the investigations you were caught up in...your call, Layton."
The Professor could say nothing, merely look at Don Paolo with sheer melancholy.
"You..you monster!" I yelled, trying desperately to get free, "You can't possibly make him choose!"
"Indeed, this is most un-human!" Luke cried from within the cage.
"How you feeling, Layton? Distraught? Sick? Well, now we're almost even," Don Paolo said, "So who's it gonna be?"
"Is that really it?" the Professor asked sadly, "That's the only way? I have to choose the lives of these three in order to make us even?"
"Exactly," Don Paolo sniggered, "Now hurry up, I can't keep my grip on this one much longer."
I turned my pleading eyes to the Professor, as did Luke and Flora.
"Very well," the Professor whispered, tipping his hat to hide his eyes, "Then I shall make my decision. . ."