Chapter 25: Counter Attack
Kendra, Seth, Warren, Clover and Raxtus all sat around the platform outside the Inverted Tower, waiting for the half hour to pass.
"Oh right," said Seth, as a thought suddenly occurred to him. "Raxtus, as long as we're waiting, do you think you'd be able to open up that secret compartment and grab the Skullifier?"
"Sure," replied the fairy dragon. "It'll give me something to do, if nothing else."
Everyone turned to face the platform, where they examined each and every last stone with their eyes.
"I'm pretty sure it was that stone right there," said Kendra, pointing to what she believed was where the Skullifier had been hidden in the past.
"Got it," said Raxtus, positioning his nails around the stone. Just as he had done so in the past, Raxtus pulled on the stone, ripping it right out of the wall. Everyone could tell that it was the right one, as not only was the stone at its reduced size, but the Skullifier was sitting inside the hole.
"Awesome," said Seth, reaching into the hole and pulling out the artifact.
Raxtus placed the stone back into the hole, but was unable to get it to stand up in its proper position.
"Let me help you with that," said Clover, as she conjured up some magic, which she then used to secure the stone back into place.
"Think about it," said Warren. "If we technically haven't altered history, then the Skullifier has been stored here all along, including when Kendra and I went down into the vault. And to think it's been right under our noses all this time."
"Something's wrong with it, said Seth, examining the Skullifier within his hands. "Those crystal eyes it had are gone."
Kendra looked over at the Skullifier, noticing that the eye sockets no longer contained the crystals it previously had.
"It's just lost all of its power," said Clover. "After all, it's been idle for centuries."
Kendra then reached over and placed her hand upon the Skullifier. Just like the time before, she could feel energy flowing through her body and into the artifact. Soon, the Skullifier's onyx eyes re-manifested within its eye sockets.
"Problem solved," said Seth smugly.
I think it's almost time," said Warren a short while later. "I'm going to remain in this spot, so that the Chronometer transports me back to 1689. "The rest of you need to back off, or you'll come back too."
Nodding in agreement, Kendra, Seth, Clover and Raxtus all walked away from the platform to the inverted tower, not stopping until they were roughly thirty feet away from where Warren was standing.
As the four of them turned around, they looked over at Warren just in time to watch as his body suddenly vanished in a flash of light. The clothes he had been wearing all fell onto the snow in the spot where he had been standing.
"I guess it worked," said Kendra, as she and the others all sprinted up to the spot where Warren had just been.
"So Warren went back in time," said Seth. "But what happened to him? Or the Chronometer? I mean, why is he not back already with the others?"
"Maybe they went to the wrong time?" said Clover. "By mistake?"
"Or maybe the Chronometer broke," said Raxtus.
"What if something went horribly wrong?" exclaimed Clover. "What if he's lost in time with no way back? We'll never find him!"
Kendra and Seth could both feel their hearts sinking. What if something really had happened to Warren? What if he, along with the others, were unable to make it back to the present?
A moment later, a brilliant light appeared before the group, taking everyone by surprise. Once it faded, Warren had returned, along with Bright, Bracken and Geminus. It came as no surprise that the four of them were naked.
"What happened?" gasped Kendra, as Warren bent down to put his clothing back on.
Warren rolled his eyes, slipping back into his shirt. "Nothing exceptional."
Bright and Bracken had re-clothed themselves using their own magic, while Geminus simply assumed her dragon form.
"We were waiting around for a while," said Seth. "What took you guys?"
"The first group arrived here at 4 A.M." said Warren. "And I went back at four thirty. "Not wanting to risk any conflict of there being two of me in the same place at the same time, I set the Chronometer to send the rest of us to four thirty-one, one minute after I went back in time. Sorry if I made you guys worry."
"No more than usual," said Clover, giving Warren a hug and a kiss.
"Where's Gilvenoff?" asked Seth.
"When Warren assured us that you guys all made it to the proper time," began Bright, "Gilvenoff theorized that there was no need for him to come forward with the rest of us. The Chronometer is back in the past with him, so that he can get it to Lost Mesa."
"Makes me wonder," said Kendra. "If the Chronometer originally found its way to Lost Mesa for Patton to discover in the first place because of what we've just done."
"So now that we're all here," said Raxtus, "what do we do now?"
"We wait for Oblivion to cast her stupid spell, right?" asked Seth.
"But wait," said Bracken. "By doing that, nothing would have led us to have gone back in time and gotten the Chronometer to Lost Mesa. We need to not interfere with anything that would've led up to the point when we went back in time."
"But when we went back in time," said Geminus, "we only had minutes before the army would've attacked Fablehaven."
"That might be all we need," said Warren. "We'll wait until the moment after we went back in time, then use the Skullifier to dispel any magic that Oblivion's used to take control of the army. If they're not under her control, the army won't actually attack Fablehaven."
"And if that doesn't work," said Seth, "we can just use the Skullifier to free the keepers and their instruments."
"It's risky, and it would take some time," said Warren. "But it might be our only hope if this doesn't work. For now, it's best we wait things out."
"But we have all of today and tomorrow before that happens," said Seth. "And we've got to spend it camping out in these woods?"
"Not a great idea," said Bright. "We risk getting noticed by other creatures the longer we stay here. And besides, who really wants to camp out in the winter when we shouldn't even be here for the time being?"
"But where are we supposed to go?" asked Kendra. "We don't have ID, money or anything."
"Oh yes we do," said Warren with a grin, as he picked up a wallet that had been buried in the snow nearby.
"Warren, what are you doing with that?" asked Seth.
"It's Stan's emergency wallet," said Warren. "He won't know it's gone, because he never uses it. But the credit cards are kept up to date, so we should be good."
"You just took it without asking?" asked Kendra.
"I didn't want to risk asking him. But he gave me permission to use it if I ever had to. Look, I'll explain everything to him after all of this is over. Don't worry."
"So, where should we go from here, then?" asked Clover.
"Somewhere where we won't already be."
"Well, other than Fablehaven," began Kendra, "we spent Monday and Tuesday around New York City and Hartford."
"So let's go to Providence" said Warren. "It's in another state, and it's in the opposite direction of New York City from here."
"What'll we do while we're there?" asked Bright.
"Take a rest," said Warren. "Go shopping, try to take it easy. We've got a lot of weight on our shoulders, but as long as we've got time to kill, we can at least stop to catch our breaths."
"Let's roll," said Bracken, as he transformed back into a unicorn. Kendra and Bright climbed onto his back, while Warren and Clover got onto Raxtus and Seth got onto Geminus. The group then leapt into the sky, flying off into the east towards Rhode Island.
The next day or so that the group spent in Providence turned out to be rather relaxing. They were at no risk of running into their past selves, and could just go at their own pace for once. They spent the Monday eating breakfast, lunch and dinner at various restaurants, and purchased new clothes and supplies for themselves at Providence Place mall. Warren had also managed to sneak a bit of walrus butter from his trip to the house the previous day, so Seth was able to see the fairies and dragons.
After they finished for the day, the group checked in to a hotel. Warren surprised them all by revealing that he had his own ID contained within the wallet, along with a credit card, which he was able to use to book two adjoining rooms for the group. Kendra and Seth shared a room with two beds, while Warren and Bracken shared the other. Bright and Clover were all right sleeping in their private zones, while Raxtus and Geminus kept small and slept on a pillow atop of a chair in Kendra and Seth's room.
Going to sleep at around eight o'clock, the group woke up at seven. The good night's sleep made a world of difference. Had there been no attack on Fablehaven for them to deal with, Kendra and Seth could've just forgotten about their worries and actually enjoyed themselves.
Early in the afternoon, the group made their way back to the woods around Fablehaven. As far as they were aware, the original group had just come back from the court case in Hartford. They soon found themselves outside the fence surrounding Fablehaven, nowhere near the main gate.
Warren seemed to recall that they initially went back in time at around six-fifty, so they could likely expect the jet that prompted them to time travel to arrive roughly a few minutes before then. According to a watch they had purchased in Providence, it was currently three minutes after two.
To pass the time away, the group told each other various stories and played games such as twenty questions, eye spy and a game in which one person would name a geographical location, and the next had to pick another that started with the same letter the previous one ended in. They also packed an assortment of snacks to munch one while they waited.
At roughly six o'clock, Seth spotted several people dressed in police uniforms walking through the trees and up to the group. Raxtus quickly turned invisible, while Geminus shrunk down to a fairy.
"Excuse me," said a woman, once the police all arrived, "but may I ask what you folks are doing here?"
"Just... looking for a Christmas tree," said Warren.
"We're going to have to ask you folks to leave," said a man. "The property behind that fence is currently under lockdown. We need you to vacate the area."
"All right," said Warren. "We'll go."
The group all walked through the forest, heading away from Fablehaven, not stopping until the police behind them were seemingly out of sight.
"This is great," said Seth sarcastically. "We're only lucky they didn't try to arrest us."
"They had bigger fish to fry," said Bracken.
"Yeah," noted Warren. "Us. The us that's still at Fablehaven, that is."
"I hope Oblivion wasn't in control of those guys," said Clover. "If she or Jake saw us through their eyes..."
"Trask implied that there were lots of police troops outside of Fablehaven when he was on the phone. No way Oblivion and Jake could've been controlling every last one of them. She was probably in control of only a few of them, just giving orders to the others."
"We need to get to the front gate of Fablehaven," said Bright. "That's where most of them probably are."
"We'll keep our distance, though," said Bracken, as he transformed into a unicorn. "Come on."
Raxtus and Geminus grew back into dragons, and the group scurried through the forest, veering around the perimeter of Fablehaven, while making sure to keep their distance to avoid getting spotted by any more police officers.
Roughly twenty minutes later, they arrived near the entrance to Fablehaven, where seemingly dozens of police cars had been parked up along the roadway near the main gate. Lots of police officers appeared to be in the vicinity. The group kept a good distance, hiding behind a cluster of trees.
"Attention Stanley Sorenson!" blared a policeman through a megaphone aimed towards the estate. "This is the Connecticut State Police! You and your family are all under arrest and must surrender to us immediately!"
"That's preposterous," said Kendra.
"They're not following the law," said Warren. "Oblivion's making them, or getting their superiors to tell them to do so."
"Let's just stop them already," said Seth.
"We can't," said Warren. "Not until we've traveled back in time."
Several minutes later, Kendra spotted the police stopping somebody's car. She glanced through her binoculars at the car, and was able to make out Trask sitting in the driver's seat.
"It's Trask," said Kendra, passing the binoculars to Seth.
"He's going to be calling Stan about all of this soon," said Warren.
They watched as Trask then made a u-turn and drove down the road, away from the entrance to Fablehaven. Soon, several tanks drove up towards the gate, aiming their turrets towards the property.
"Man, Trask wasn't kidding about any of this," said Seth.
"It's almost time," said Warren, observing his watch.
Soon, they could hear the roar of a powerful engine soaring above their heads. Looking up, they could all see the jet aircraft they had heard back when they were in the house, soaring several hundred feet in the air above them.
"Guys, we need to act now," said Warren, removing the Skullifier from his bag.
"How are we supposed to stop that jet that's flying around from down here?"
"There's gotta be some military officer out there's who under Oblivion's control. If we can cancel out Oblivion's magic on them, they'll come to their senses and call off the strike. Stand back, all."
Warren held the Skullifier out in front of him and released its power towards the military unit that was parked outside the gate. Darkness shot out of the artifact's eyes and flashed a wave of darkness towards the squad.
"Did it work?" asked Seth once the darkness faded. Looking through the binoculars, he could see that the officers seemed confused, but was unsure if anything had changed.
"All units fall back!" blared a commanding officer through a megaphone. "I don't know what happened, or why I brought us here, but we have no right attacking this property. They are not posing any sort of threat! I repeat! All units fall back!"
Seth watched as the commanding officer lowered the megaphone, then placed his hand on his forehead and sulked. The man must've not been in control of himself, and probably couldn't figure out why.
"We did it!" exclaimed Geminus.
"Not quite!" noted Bracken. "That jet plane's still flying back and forth around the perimeter of Fablehaven! That army officer needs to get them to stop!"
"But that plane's part of the air force!" exclaimed Warren. "Not the army! Either way, the pilot's probably directly under Oblivion's control."
Warren aimed the Skullifier up into the air and activated the Skullifier's power, but the plane was too far away and moving too fast to be in range with the artifact's energy field.
"I can't reach the plane from here! I gotta fly! But I'm not fast enough!"
"Let me give you a boost," said Raxtus, gesturing for Warren to get onto his back.
"You come too, Seth," said Warren. "Your power over darkness might just help fend off the pilot."
Seth climbed up onto Raxtus' backside behind Warren, just as the dragon zipped up into the air. The dragon soared up several hundred feet, with Seth and Warren both holding on firmly.
The jet plane was veering around in the air, going far too fast for Raxtus to even keep up with.
"We need to slow it down!" said Warren. "Seth, use your power! Focus on the plane when it turns around again!"
Seth waited as the plane made a u-turn in the distance, flying back in his direction. Focusing entirely on the plane, Seth envisioned a veil of darkness surrounding it. As the plane drew closer, it slowed down, revealing that it was now partially encompassed by a cloud of darkness.
"Got it!" exclaimed Warren, emitting the Skullifier's energy onto the plane and through the darkness that Seth had produced. "If that didn't do it, nothing will! Seth, release your darkness!"
Seth envisioned the darkness he had conjured up around the plane now fading away, just as the aircraft soared past them. It then sped up and soared away from Fablehaven, making no effort to reverse its direction.
"I hope that worked," said Seth. "Raxtus, let's get back to the group!"
Nodding in agreement, Raxtus soared back down towards where the group was.
"You got the plane to leave!" exclaimed Kendra.
"The pilot had to have been directly controlled by Oblivion in some way," said Warren. "We're only lucky she probably had no real experience in flying jet planes."
"But the army's still there," said Bright. "And so are the police."
The group watched as the police and military officer talked among each other for several minutes, before they ultimately returned to their cars, jeeps and tanks, and all drove off.
"Wait," said Clover. "Where're they all going?"
"They're... gone," said Kendra.
"That's it?" asked Geminus. "We can go back to Fablehaven?"
"Not quite," said Warren. "There's still Midwinter's Eve going on on the other side of the fence. We'll spend the night elsewhere, but we can breathe easy for now. We won."