Heroes of the Past and Present

Disclaimer: Do not own Victorious, do not own the video game

A/N: This covers heavily one of the missions in Act 3 of the game, after this, they're going to start making some headway on the ancestor.

Chapter 20 (Charade: Gamlen's Greatest Treasure)

"So who is after Gamlen, again?" Trina was with Sinjin, Tori and Jade, investigating some note that Gamlen had given to Aveline about a jewel that someone wanted him to find. Trina decided to travel with Jade over the others because, for some odd reason, Jade was currently the most tolerable. Perhaps it was due to the fact that Jade somewhat acknowledged her problems and admitted to her that she never believed herself to be above anyone in reality.

"Not sure anyone is after him," Sinjin replied, "Just that the letter states some sort of gem he was searching for several years ago was found. Something to that extent…" A gem that was to be in Darktown.

I found the Gem of Keroshek. If you want it, come to Darktown. Alone.

Gamlen revealed the legend of the gem while talking with Aveline, who reiterated it to the group. He said he wasn't going to bother with it, and that when told of what happened to Sarah, he figured it might be a good idea to let them know about the note. His instincts were that Darktown, as well as the foreboding word 'alone', could only mean a trap. It bothered her somewhat that they had to do this, but it was for their Great-uncle Gamlen. He was practically family now! Plus, she had a feeling, this was something Sarah would have done for him.

When they rounded the corner, they found a group of mercenaries standing in a horde, they seemed suspicious, but also out of place for Darktown. They weren't wearing rags, and looked to be somewhat wealthier than the usual suspects. The chubby blonde haired man, who appeared to be the leader, eyed them from head to toe. "Hey, one of you this Gamlen chap?" Trina smirked and shrugged her shoulders.

"I am related to him, if that's close enough. Now what's all this about a gem?"

"Well…first off, we want it." She had a sinking suspicion they were plotting an ambush, but all this over a legend? Gamlen never even found this treasure. It apparently had something to do with the reason his wife left him in the past, or something to that extent. She wasn't sure, nor did she want to go into details.

"Well now, how can I give you something that I don't even have with me?"

"Oh, so you're going to be a smartass about it?"

"Well it seems the best way to state the obvious since the note indicated that the sender had this gem." She could see he was insulted by her words, but she couldn't help it, she was miffed that she had to deal with this guy as a side note to the mission at hand she wanted to deal with. "Sorry, you're just a speed bump on my path."

"What did you just call me?" Sinjin smacked his forehead and Jade shook her head, Tori leaned in and whispered that the people in this time would not know what a speed-bump analogy meant. She rolled her eyes and watched the man grab his daggers from his back. The rest of the men drew their weapons as well and Trina let out a heavy sigh.

"Great. I pissed 'em off." She drew her daggers and leapt back as the blonde slashed at her. "Watch it there, blonde boy."

"The name is Mekel!"

"Could have told me that. You'll have to mind my bitterness, I'm going through a rough time of month right now that I'm pretty sure you don't have medical terminology for right now." She saw Sinjin's face go sour and the girls exchanged knowing looks while holding back urges to laugh.

"Strike that on the list of things I wasn't expecting to hear right now," Sinjin muttered.

Jade smirked in return, "Oh you think that's bad Sinjin? Try having your grandma drop in on you and your boyfriend making out in the bed…" Sinjin groaned and Trina's eyebrows shot up.

"This is why I didn't want to be the only guy in the group!"

"You have heard worse," Trina pointed out. They'd definitely talked about her PMS before, though not as often, but there were very many things she felt comfortable about talking with him if she needed advice. One time, she thought she found a lump on her breast and asked him, without showing him of course, if it was anything serious, as his mother was a doctor. He got his mom, who determined it wasn't serious, but if anything happened with it, to schedule an appointment. "Remember the lump I had to talk to your mom about?" Tori gasped and immediately questioned her about it, since she never brought it up. "It was nothing."

They turned their attention back to Mekel and his men, who were gawking at them in a haze of great confusion. "What…in blazes are you people going on about?"

"Personal stuff! Mind your own business!" She lunged forward, swinging her daggers inwards. Mekel started to grumble and charged at her.

After the fight, it turned out Mekel didn't have the gem, but rather, another note that was a supposed clue to something else. A 'wallop mallet'. They had to ask Aveline what in the hell that was, and it turned out to be some game that sounded similar to cricket, but not quite the same.

The hunt for this led to the large tree at the Elvin Alienage in Lowtown, which was evidently the wood that wallop mallets were made from. Gamlen said he used to play the game all the time, of course. When they went, they found a man who said someone in a cloak gave him a note, one which led straight to a fish guttery in the Docks, where they were to look in crates for another clue.

They were exhausted from following the notes all over the place, to the point that even Sinjin was starting to get pissed off. Much to their chagrin, the fish place was yet another ambush from mercenaries. They found themselves surrounded, so Tori stepped forward, magic surging from her fingertips. "Let me try something," she stated in a velvet-like, calm voice. "Anders said our magic is like…ten times stronger than our ancestors because of the age gap…so, I'm going to test the theory."

"Feel free, sis." She stepped back with the others and crossed her arms, watching as five mercenaries came running for them. Tori flexed her fingers and moved her hands together, hovering them apart by five inches. A ball of fire and smoke began to form, and her lips turned up into a smirk. The mercenaries saw this and started to turn the other way, but it was all too late.

An explosion shook the foundation as fire shot out from Tori's hands like a tidal wave of lava. It covered the screaming enemies and silenced them. When the fire died down and the smoke cleared, the five mercenaries were gone, turned into a pile of ashes. The remaining bounty whimpered at the loss of their friends. Tori straightened herself up and flipped her hair over her shoulder while Trina and the others remained in awe of her sister's power.

"I'm about five hundred years from being related to Gamlen. That being said, who else wants a piece of me? I've been training and training on my magic, so…want to see what else I got in my arsenal, or are you going to tell us where to go and end this mess?"

They cried out in terror, dropping a note that revealed the person waiting for them at a cave somewhere outside of town, then ran screaming for their lives. Trina looked back at the group and grinned. "See? Sometimes you have to burn a few bad guys to get what you want."

Jade appeared visibly shaken, and sighed in response, "Remind me not to ever get on your bad side again."

"It's Trina you should worry about, especially since it is that time…" Tori looked to Sinjin and cleared her throat. "Chocolate and flowers. Now." He rolled his eyes and Trina walked towards the exit, ignoring the conversation. She wasn't a big fan of flowers, but chocolate was all right if it was something along the lines of Whitmans or those Queen Anne chocolate covered cherries, but that was it.

"Remind me to buy her some Whitmans when we get home," Sinjin muttered, following after her. She beamed with pride and Tori was in awe. Was it that surprising that he knew what she liked? She'd only told him a million times over the years.

Jade sheathed her sword and spread her arms out in a shrug, "Seriously, why aren't you two dating? You get along better than I do with Beck! That's saying something!" Sinjin raised an eyebrow and glanced over his shoulder, smirking her way.

"How so? How many times have you two broken up and gotten back together again?" Jade narrowed her eyes and Tori snickered.

"Hah, hah, very funny. Seriously though, why aren't you?"

Trina pushed open the wooden door and gazed out at the water in front of them, "I'm not ready. That's why. I don't really feel I need to go into detail there. As for right now, let's get this mission over with so we can continue on finding my ancestor before something bad happens."

At the caves, while walking through the cold and dreary caverns, Tori had moved herself out from between Trina and Jade. The two girls were now walking side by side, but only because Trina didn't feel enough concern to bother with moving away from Jade. "You want to explain what you said back there, Jade? Your ancestor dropped in on you and Beck making out?"

"Yes…Actually we were getting a little carried away, so she dropped in at about the right time. For us, that is, I'm not sure she felt too good about it." She chuckled and watched Jade fidget with her hair, pulling it back as a distraction from the subject. "I know what you're probably thinking, and no, I don't try to have sex."

"I would have thought you guys had sex before."

"Why?"

"Because of that old Robarazzi," Sinjin said from behind. Jade's eyes widened and she let out a groan, gently sweeping her fingers over her forehead. "It seemed like Beck was trying to talk you into having sex." Trina agreed and Tori nodded in reply. She actually discussed this with Sinjin back in the day when it happened. It was a miracle that Robbie never actually targeted her for anything.

"Okay I can explain that." She was eager to hear the explanation, but at the same time, was more distracted by her surroundings. The cave walls were dry, rocky and somehow well lit. There were stone pathways with grass growing, and openings in the ceiling. It was a truly remarkable sight!

"So you're saying what?"

"I'm not the type of girl who has sex with her boyfriend, I prefer waiting until marriage. I know it gets hard when we start making out, and yes he has tried to pressure me into having sex, but…the closest we ever came was when Aveline showed up, and that was just when we were getting too into making out." Jade took a deep breath, pausing for a minute before continuing on. "I don't want to be one of those unwed pregnant teens. There's enough teenage mama drama in the world as it is…"

"That's a good way to look at it." She had to admit, she was surprised. This was a new side of Jade she hadn't known about, but she wasn't ready quite yet to start trusting the girl or anything. She would still keep her skepticism, because being open about one thing didn't mean much at all.

After some amount of walking, they came upon an open clearing where a woman with a bow was waiting for them. She was tall, slender, and had wavy brown hair with neat, curly bangs in a flat line above her eyebrows. The woman had blue mascara and a look of fleeting hope on her face. "Well. This doesn't seem like the usual ambushes we've been running into so far."

"What is this?" The woman asked, walking up to them. "Gamlen couldn't even be bothered to come here himself? I give him the one thing he wants most, and he doesn't even have the decency to come?" She sensed a note of despair and began to suspect something more to all of this than what she was originally thinking.

"You make some sort of game out of seeking out Gamlen, nearly get us killed in the process, and why?"

"Killed? What are you talking about?"

Just then a man stepped out of the shadows, he was wearing the same red armor as Mekel and had two daggers attached to his back. Trina groaned as the man glared at her. "Charade, This bitch killed my brother." Was he referring to Mekel? Did they not attack them?

"Are you talking about the blonde guy that jumped us in Darktown?" The man hissed and Charade stared in shock at the man.

"Veld, what is she talking about? Mekel was only supposed to give her the note."

"Oh, you mean you don't know?" Trina smirked at the girl and crossed her arms, half tempted to walk off right now. "We were ambushed by a bunch of men looking for that thing you mentioned."

"I know about the gem," Veld drew his daggers and narrowed his eyes, growling angrily. "And I want it."

"Oh great. Another fight." She rolled her eyes and waited as several mercenaries surrounded them. Charade began to scold her apparent boyfriend, but that didn't appear to matter. The asshole was more concerned about whatever this jewelry was, and Trina was still concerned that it was a piece of shit. "You know, Veld, is it? You should probably learn not to piss off a girl when she's in the middle of her period without a pack of tampons."

"Trina, really?" Sinjin pinched the bridge of his nose and Tori shivered. Veld and the mercenaries seemed confused, so Charade took the moment to push him away and draw her bow.

The fight lasted for a good fifteen minutes until all the mercenaries were unconscious on the ground. Charade stepped over Veld's body and looked towards the group with an apologetic look. "I'm sorry about all of this. I…I didn't think this was going to happen."

"You said something about Uncle Gamlen how do you know him?"

"I'm his daughter, but I guess he wouldn't have told you about me in the first place." Charade put her bow and arrows back in the quiver, scoffing as she turned away. The hurt was clear in her eyes, her mascara seemed to hide well the tears that were forming. She was surprised to learn about this cousin of Sarah's, it was a very important piece of information!

"You're his daughter?"

"Mom told me about him when she passed away…I just assumed he was a jackass that left us behind, but I wanted to find him."

"Gamlen said his wife left him a long time ago. Does he even know about you?" Charade paused and bowed her head, her expression twisted with doubt and her shoulders rose up.

"I-I don't even know…"

"You should go visit him. He's in Lowtown, I can direct you there. Just, next time, please try showing up at the door instead. It's less of a headache."

"I know, I just thought if I baited him with something he really wanted, he'd go after it. Mom told me how much he always wanted to go after this jewel…" Charade pulled a round object with a ruby jewel inside of it. Trina was astounded by its beauty, but at the same time, Gamlen did seem like a man that would likely be more fond of having a daughter than having that jewel. "I guess it was too much to ask for."

"I don't know, give talking to Gamlen a try. He's really not that bad once you get to know him." She hoped that was the truth, but it had to be. Charade gave her a smile and quickly nodded her head.

"You're right…having a cousin turned out to be a good thing, maybe having a dad will too."

She raised her hand to speak, but Charade was already walking towards the exit of the cave. "Uh-should I tell her I'm not…Sarah…or just leave it alone?"

"I am sure your ancestor will figure it out," Sinjin replied, "But first off let's get back to Aveline at the Barracks." The reason Aveline hadn't been with them this time was due to her busy schedule. Everyone had something they had to deal with at the time, so it left Trina and the group as the only ones that could go on this arduous task. "I'm sure she'll be happy to hear everything's resolved."

"Gamlen too."

"Definitely."

There you go, just a quick little chapter to bring you some amusement. Also "Gamlen's Greatest Treasure" was the last mission I had left in Sarah's playthrough after Best Served Cold. Though, I think I had more, but we won't see other missions, this pretty much clears up those last ones.